A Shock Of Blue Hair
by Fireblade57
Summary: Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard, is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.
1. A Chance Sighting

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 1: A Chance Sighting**

 **Friday, September 13th, 2013**

I sighed as I left class, looking around for something to do. Blackwell was amazing, and photography class was amazing, and I got to study under _Mark Jefferson_ , but… but… It was so boooring the rest of the time. Why did I have to go to science class? So dumb. I kept walking, looking around. There's Dana, there's Daniel. So many people, god it was overwhelming.

Someone said something beside me, but I didn't hear. I turned around, and when they spoke again I heard them.

"Earth to Max? Hello? Anyone home?" It was Kate, and I took a moment to compose herself before responding.

"Sorry Kate,I guess I zoned out."

"I asked if you were thinking about going to one of the Vortex Club parties."

They had been walking for a while now, and were in the courtyard outside. I opened my mouth to speak;

"I don't know Kate, I've heard bad things about those-" I cut off as I saw something in the courtyard. A bright flash of blue, something she would never see otherwise. There was a girl in dark torn jeans and a white tank top with a skull over it, covered up with a leather jacket. Her hair was a bright blue, covered up at the top with a beanie.

"Kate who is that? She's so cute." The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them, and I clasped a hand over it, too late, blushing bright red at what I had said.

I looked over, and Kate was quirking her eyebrow, a smirk on her face.

"Someone has a crush!" She said, her voice sing-song.

"Do not!" I said, my face reddening even more.

"Suure you don't. Well, Lovergirl, that over there is Chloe Price. She got kicked out of Blackwell a few months ago, though she swings by every so often to talk to Justin, since they're old friends. The staff ignore it because she's actually kinda nice, and the reason she got kicked out was mostly bullshit." Now it was Kate's turn to cover her mouth, blushing as she rapidly sputtered;

"I'm so sorry, pardon my language, I wasn't thinking, and I was kind of mad because it was dumb when she got kicked out, and she's nice, and, and"

"Don't worry Kate, it's cute to hear you adding some color to your language. Um… catch you later?" I said, trying to calm her down. It worked and the color faded from her face as her eyebrows worked, trying to parse my last statement.

"What, are you going to chat up Chloe Price, Lovergirl?" She responded.

"No… okay maybe. Her hair is, and her outfit is, god I don't know how to describe it. I HAVE to talk to her." I responded. There were butterflies in my stomach, and I couldn't articulate what I was feeling properly.

"Go ahead, try and score a date, get out of your dorm maybe. If you strike out, I'll be in the dorms if you want to talk later."

I waved her goodbye, and walked up to Justin and the newly-named Chloe, trying to act casual.

"Hi Justin."

He turned to face me, and I could actually see him struggle to remember my name. God, he was such an airhead.

"Hey Max, how's it going?"

"Good, good. Thought I'd swing by and say hello, we haven't talked in awhile." Or Ever.

"Well I was just going, but I'll introduce you before I leave. Chloe, this is Max, the best photographer I know, and all-around nice person. Max, this is Chloe, the most punk badass I've ever met."

He walked off, and when I turned towards Chloe, I could see her looking me up and down, sizing me up.

"So you're a photographer? Does that mean, you like, learn how to take better selfies?"

She sounded flippant, but I could tell it was kind of meant as a genuine question.

"Yes, I'm a photographer, we are standing in a high school with one of the best photography programs in the state. And I learn plenty about photography, including how to take better selfies." I had no idea where this bravado was coming from. The butterflies in my stomach were working overtime, and I don't know who was in charge of the words coming out of my mouth, but it sure wasn't me.

Chloe quirked her head at me. She looked kind of surprised, but I couldn't tell what she was thinking. She opened her mouth to talk, and I hung onto her every word.

"You know, from what Justin said, and from what I've heard, I thought you were going to be a total wuss. But you seem pretty cool." I spluttered, surprised by her response.

"What've you heard about me? Who said, what did they said, what?" I was freaking out. Had she talked to Victoria, Warren, Kate, who?

"Chill, chill. This is like, the smallest town in the middle of nowhere. Someone moves here, you hear about it. Plus, I'm like, best friends with Rachel Amber, so she gave me the low-down on you."

I heard her response, but it took me a few seconds to process. Then the latter part of what she had said earlier caught up to me. "You think I'm cool?"

She was smirking now, and responded. "Yeah, you seem alright, not like most of the people in this town. I gotta jet now, but tell you what, take this," She grabbed the journal that was peeking out of my bag, and ripped out a piece of paper. She pulled a pen out of one of the many pockets of her jacket, and then jotted something down. She pushed it into my palm, and our hands touched. I froze up at the physical contact. She noticed and looked me up and down again.

"Are you okay?" Her head dipped down, and I wasn't sure what she was doing until I felt her lips lightly brushing my cheek. "Well I do really have to go now, see ya later. You look cute when you freeze up from emotional overload. Bye." She skipped away, but I barely noticed it. I hobbled over to a nearby bench, and collapsed onto it.

I came to a while later. I was still sitting on the bench, and Warren was standing above me. He was saying something, and I tuned in, hearing what he was saying.

"Max, are you okay? I asked around, and Alyssa said you've been just sitting here for the last like, 2 hours with that zoned-out expression on your face. What happened?"

I opened my mouth to respond, and then I remembered what had happened. I remembered Chloe's lips brushing my cheek, I remembered my brain slowly melting. I remembered sitting down at this bench.

"Chloe kissed me." The words were out of my mouth before I could decide whether or not I wanted to say them. Warren gave me a look that conveyed _well you seem kind of crazy_ pretty well, before he hefted me up from the bench, grabbing one of my arms to help me up.

"You know what, you're either stoned or super tired, and either way I don't think you should be just sitting here. I'm going to take you back to your dorm, and you're gonna sleep whatever this is off, okay?"

"Sure. Thanks Warren." I walked with him, leaning pretty heavily, just sort of walking on auto-pilot.

We walked for a few minutes until we got to the girl's dorms. Warren knocked on the door, and sort of stood around for a few minutes. I looked at him. And he rubbed the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well I'm not going to go into the girls dorms, and I still don't trust you to operate under your own power, so we're going to wait for like, Dana or Rachel or something."

"Okay." I spoke quietly, and my mouth closed before I realized it had opened. We stood for a few more minutes, and Kate opened the door, looking us up and down.

"What happened? Warren, she looks half-dead. Where did you take her, the Vortex Club?"

Kate had her hands on her hips, and with her outfit and stern expression, she reminded me of a stern mother. I giggled, and covered up my mouth afterwards.

"No, no, nothing like that. I found her sitting on the bench outside the school, and Alyssa said she had been sitting there, for like 2 hours! So I figured there was probably something wrong, so I helped her back here." Warren sputtered, looking pretty cowed by Kate and her stern looks.

"Mhm, very likely. Max, is this true?" She asked me, and it took me a second to figure out that she meant me. "Warren didn't do anything. He helped me back here, after, after, after… " I leaned in towards her, like I was whispering a secret. "Chloe kissed me."

Kate raised her eyebrows at that, but she took me from Warren. I turned to him as I left, opening my mouth to speak.

"Thanks Warren."

He waved to me as I left, and I waved back. Then Kate helped me to my dorm. She sat me down on the bed, and went over to hers, coming back with a small bottle of medicine. She spooned some of it into my mouth, and I recognized the bittersweet taste of Nyquil. She went back to her room to put it away, and when she came back, the medicine had started to take effect. I was getting kind of drowsy. Kate laid me down on the bed, and pulled the blanket over me.

"Goodnight Max. I hope you feel better in the morning." Kate walked to the door, and hit the light.

"Goodnight Kate." I yawned, and then I closed my eyes, and it was dark.

 **AN** : Hullo. It's me. Characterization on Max was kind of weird in this chapter, but I wanted to show that she was really shocked by Chloe. I might have gone overboard. Whatever. If you have the time, drop a review. Reviews are great. Next chapter SHOULD be up within a week of this one.

 _Uploaded Thursday, March 17th, 2016._


	2. Waffles!

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 2: Waffles!**

 **Saturday, September 14th, 2013**

The world slowly came into focus as I opened my eyes. I pulled myself up into a sitting position, blearily rubbing my eyes as I looked over at my alarm clock. It was 10:00. I could have gone back to sleep, but I was basically awake so there wasn't much point. I got up, and realized that I was still dressed in my clothes from yesterday. I stripped them down to my underwear and threw the dirty clothes in my hamper. As I did so, I realized my hand was clenched around a piece of paper. I put it down on my bedside table and grabbed my toiletry bag.

I left my room and walked to the showers. Very few people were out and about, as those who were inclined to sleep in, like Victoria and Alyssa, were still sleeping, and the early birds like Brooke and Kate were already outside, doing whatever they did on a sleepy day like this.

I reach the showers and open the door, stepping inside. Walking over to the sinks, I splash some cold water on my face. That seems to do the trick, and I finally feel fully awake. I brush my teeth, and step into the showers, turning on the water. I use some shampoo and start washing my hair, running my fingers through it.

As is my tradition while in the shower, I mull over the thoughts of the previous day in my head. They're kind of blurry, but I go through them as best I can. I went to class, we learned about Diane Arbus (kind of weird, but I don't know what to make of half of what we learn in class.) I got out of class, I was talking with Kate, and I saw Chloe in the courtyard. We talked, she kissed me. Wait what? Okay, going over my memories, yeah, Chloe kissed my cheek. It was kind of awesome. After that things get kind of hazy. I sat down on a bench for a few hours, and Warren helped me back to my dorm. Then Kate gave me some NyQuil and I went to sleep.

I finished up my shower, and headed back to my room, getting dressed. I threw on a white t-shirt with butterfly decals and some jeans. I stretched and yawned, taking in the sleepy atmosphere of this Saturday. It was relatively temperate for the middle of July, and the skies were cloudy. Just as I had finished looking out the window, and as I was thinking about going outside to take some pictures, there was a quiet knocking at my door. I opened the door, and I saw Kate standing there. She looked at me concernedly, which was sweet.

"Hullo Max. I thought I'd come along and check on you. You were pretty out of it last night. I had to help you to bed."

"Oh hi Kate. Come on in, I'll explain myself, and try to properly thank you for yesterday." I ushered her into the room, and cleaned off my bed so she could sit down. I then plopped down next to her as she spoke.

"No need to thank me Max, I was just being neighborly." She hesitated, as if she was unsure what exactly to say next, or perhaps whether she should say it. "I would like an explanation though. I was worried, you know."

I almost laughed at her expression. "Kate, an explanation is the least I owe you after yesterday. I told her the whole story about what had happened after I left her, and her concerned expression softened somewhat.

"Well it sounds like she really likes you. I'm going to go out to town and get some breakfast. Do you want to come with me?" Kate was beaming at me, and I figured I would have gone with her, until something occurred to me.

"Kate, why haven't you had breakfast yet? Don't you get up early?" It was odd, usually Kate got up around 7 or 8, you could tell from the violin playing that emerged from her room each morn.

"Um, well I wasn't very hungry when I got up, and I had homework to do, which I just finished now." I squinted at her. I couldn't tell if she was telling the truth, and she looked uneasy. I shrugged it off though. Kate would never lie, she was probably just worried I wasn't going to get breakfast with her.

"Well that makes sense. Sure, I'll get breakfast. Does the Two Whales sound good to you?"

Kate laughed, an innocent, clear sound that reverberated against the empty space of my room.

"Max, anyone who's been in this town for over a month knows to go to the Two Whales for breakfast. Of course that's where we're going." I grinned and practically leapt off my bed. It had been so long since I'd been to the Two Whales, though my family had gone there all the time when I was little.

Leaving the room, I grabbed my grey sweatshirt as well as my bag, donning them as I left. Me and Kate walked down the hallway, but instead of making to leave, Kate headed down the hallway and knocked on the door of a room I didn't recognize.

"Kate, what are you doing? I thought we were going." Kate placed her finger to her lip in a "quiet" motion and I stopped talking, though I was still very confused. A few seconds later the door opened and a tall blonde girl stood there, wearing red and black flannel over a plain black t-shirt, along with jeans. She was beautiful, in the same way you might find a waterfall or sculpture beautiful. She was undeniably good-looking, even if you couldn't quite put your finger on what made her so alluring.

"Hi Kate. Is this your friend?" She turned to look at me, and I could feel her examining me, looking me up and down. I was oddly at ease with this, even though this much prettier girl was sizing me up. She stuck out her hand towards me and introduced herself.

"Hi, I'm Rachel, Rachel Amber. And you are?"

I took her hand and shook it, feeling a little awkward. "I'm Max Caulfield. I'm new here, if you were wondering why you hadn't seen me around before." I had said that so many times in the last week that it rattled of my tongue easily. As she heard my name something changed in her expression, but I wrote it off as me being paranoid, like I had been a few minutes ago with Kate. There was something about her name that I couldn't quite put my finger on, but I wrote that off too.

The girl nodded her head and stepped past me out into the hallway. "So you guys ready to go to breakfast?" I nodded reflexively and looked towards Kate, who was watching the exchange with a bemused expression. I raised my eyebrow, but she simply nodded in response to Rachel's question.

"Everything will be fine, Max." Kate's words assured me, even if I had no idea what was going on. I decided to go back to looking forward to breakfast. If Kate trusted this girl than that was good enough for me.

We exited the girl's dorms and headed over to the parking lot. Rachel and Kate made small talk as we walked, which I mostly tuned out, looking around. Due to the weather, very few people were out, and an odd smell hung in the air. Not bad per se, just there. It reminded me of wet dirt, in a good sort of way. Weird. I was interrupted from my musings as we reached the parking lot. Kate stopped in front of a beat-up looking pick-up truck, and looked at Rachel quizzically.

"It's fine Kate, she's letting me borrow it while my car is in the shop." Rachel responded to Kate's expression, which seemed to relax her somewhat. They didn't elaborate as to who "she" was, and I decided not to prod. We all piled into the car, and Rachel pulled out a set of keys with a small figurine of a panda on them. I was in the backseat, and sat down, after moving a beanie which had been left on the seat. Rachel started the car after about a minute of coaxing and sputtering, and then we were off.

I stared out the window as the car rattled along the road, occasionally sputtering and coughing as we drove. The forest alongside the road from Blackwell to town was very peaceful, and looked amazing in today's pale sunlight. I was debating on whether or not I could get a good shot from inside the car when Kate poked me in the shoulder from the front seat, getting my attention.

"Sorry, what?" I turned towards her, turning my attention away from the window.

"Rachel asked you a question Max." Kate sounded a bit stern, but I didn't really mind.

"Sorry Kate, I was out of it. The scenery is so nice here." Kate's expression softened somewhat, and Rachel spoke.

"Why did you come to Arcadia Bay, Max?" I thought about her question somewhat, before responding, though I wasn't sure about the answer myself.

"Well I grew up here and well, lived here until about 5 years ago, when I moved to Seattle. I came back because I have a lot of good memories of the town, and also because of the photography program here. Mr. Jefferson is a genius." I realized that I was gushing somewhat, and tamped down on it.

Rachel didn't seem to notice my fangirling, and merely responded casually.

"Yeah, Mark takes a lot of good pictures. He knows a ton about photography, too." I was stunned. She called Mark? She went on though, asking me another question.

"So do you have anyone special for you waiting back in Seattle? Boyfriend? Girlfriend?"

"I never dated anyone in Seattle. It took me a while to figure out I didn't like boys. There were a few girls I thought were cute, but I was still kind of trying to figure out my sexuality, and so were they, for the most part." What was I doing? Here I was, pouring out my heart to a girl I had met not 10 minutes ago, a total stranger. But it didn't feel that way. Somehow, this girl managed to feel familiar to me. It seemed like I had known this girl for years.

She nodded her head appreciatively, like she understood what was going through my head. Maybe she did, I don't think I was that hard to read.

"How about Arcadia Bay? Have you met any pretty girls here?"

I could see her eyes in the rearview mirror, and she winked at me. I blushed and attempted to open my mouth, but then shut it again. After several more attempts to speak, Rachel laughed and opened her mouth to talk once more.

"No, I get it girl, if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine."

She was still chuckling, and I could hear a faint laughing from the seat in front of me that I assumed was Kate, but it cut off pretty quickly.

After a few minutes, we all calmed down, and the beat up truck pulled up in-front of a diner with an equally beat up sign on top of the roof. We headed in and sat down at a booth. Well, me and Kate did. Rachel walked up to the counter and started talking to the waitress. I looked quizzically at Kate. "Okay, spill it." She had a small smile on her face, and she started to talk.

"Well Rachel said she was going to drive into town and get breakfast. So I asked if I could come along. She said yes, and then asked if I wanted to invite anyone else. I figured you wouldn't have been to the Two Whales since you just got to Arcadia Bay a week ago, so I invited you along." She said all this in one breath, and took in a large gulp of air after she finished.

"Why's she talking to the waitress so much? Does she know her?" Kate furrowed her brow, and responded slowly, like she was unsure of what she was saying.

"I think she's friends with her daughter, or related or something. I never asked, and it could just be that Rachel is friendly with her like she is with everyone." I felt like the more I found out about Rachel Amber, the less I knew.

She came back and slid into the booth beside Kate. The waitress was a few steps behind her, and when she reached our table, I looked her up and down. She was the exact same as I remembered. The same uniform, the same face, the same hairstyle. I squinted, and read the name on her tag. It read Joyce, in a simple plain font. She reached our table, and squinted at me.

"Is that, no, is that Max Caulfield? Back from Seattle?" I was surprised she remembered me, and took a few moments to respond.

"Yeah, that's me. I can't believe you remember me, Joyce." She laughed, and poked me in the stomach.

"Are you kidding me? You and your parents came into this diner once a week for almost 10 years. The only reason I didn't recognize you the second you came in is that you're all grown up now!" Now I laughed.

"You haven't changed a bit Joyce."

"I'll take that as a compliment Max, although I don't think I could say the same for you. You've grown up so much…" She trailed off, but seemed to catch herself. "So what can I get you and your friends?"

I spoke almost the instant she asked the question. I had been thinking about this for a good chunk of the ride over.

"Belgian waffles!" I practically shouted. Rachel raised her eyebrows at me, a ghost of a smile on her face, and Kate started laughing.

"Alright then Max, Belgian waffles for you, like you've had every time you've come into this diner. Why did I even ask?" Joyce said resignedly, though she was smiling as well.

"Pancakes and a chocolate milk, please." Rachel added, and Kate ordered eggs benedict once she had finished laughing. Joyce left, and I tapped my fingers against the table, eagerly awaiting food. Kate got up to use the washroom, and then it was just me and Rachel sitting at the table.

Rachel looked at me, and I swear I saw that same glint in her eye I had seen this morning.

"So Max, you seem nice. I'd love to be friends, but I'm really busy. Do you mind if we exchange phone numbers, that way we can keep in touch for sure?" Oh that was nice. I handed over my phone, and she typed away at it for a minute before handing it back. I looked over her contact information, and then pocketed my phone. Rachel opened her mouth as if to speak, and then stopped for a minute, looking thoughtful. Finally she spoke once more.

"So earlier when we were in the car, you blushed when I asked if you had met any cute girls in Arcadia Bay. I didn't go any further, because Kate was there, and you know how she gets…" She trailed off, and I spoke to fill the silence.

"Yeah I guess I know what you mean. I was just surprised when you mentioned it earlier. There was this one girl from yesterday, she was sooo pretty, I swear I was stunned just talking to her, and then she kissed me on the cheek, and…" I trailed off, just remembering. My face was warm, and I could tell that I was blushing.

Rachel's face changed, and it took me a moment to realize she was surprised. She had been so calm and collected for every moment I had seen her. She recovered a few seconds later though, and spoke again.

"So did you get this girl's name, or phone number or…" She trailed off, and I thought for a minute, before it hit me. That piece of paper I had woken up holding was Chloe's phone number!

"Her name is Chloe, and she did give me her phone number, but I left it in my dorm. God, I'm so stupid." Rachel's face was blank, and I could tell she was trying not to show emotion. "What is it? Do you know her? Kate said you knew a lot of people, and maybe you know her-" And then it hit me like a ton of bricks. God I was dumb. "You do know her! She said yesterday that you and her were best friends! Why didn't you say anything?" Rachel just stared at me for a few more seconds blankly before bursting out laughing.

"I'm so sorry-" she paused between bursts of giggles to speak to me. "Chloe is my best friend-" More laughing, what was so funny? "Check your phone." I pulled out my phone and it opened to my contacts list, where Rachel had put in her information. I went down the list and saw nothing weird until I realized there was a new contact, one that definitely hadn't been there before. It said Chloe, and had what looked to be a mobile phone number, along with an email.

Rachel managed to recover from her fit of laughter, and drew herself up to explain herself to me. "Chloe texted me yesterday about a girl she met at Blackwell who she thought was cute. I figured it had to be you, because you're the only new girl at Blackwell who's arrived in the time since Chloe last visited campus. She was worried you lost her phone number or something, and she didn't have your's, so I may have arranged this," She gestured with her hands to the diner. "To try and talk to you."

I was calmer now, but still plenty confused, and with plenty of questions.

"What do you mean, arranged this? Kate asked me to go to breakfast with you guys."

Rachel was smiling now, and I got the feeling she had wanted to say this to someone.

"Well I invited Kate to hang out in my room this morning around the time she would be having breakfast, and helped her with her homework, and then gave her some lemonade. Afterwards I casually mentioned that I was going to the Two Whales for breakfast. She asked if she could come along, because she was hungry and wanted to eat with someone she felt was nice, and I happily obliged. And then I asked if she wanted to invite anyone else, and she thought of you, because you were the only ones clearly awake in the dorms at the time I asked."

I was awed. This girl had some crazy people skills. Like, Hannibal Lecter level people skills.

"Isn't that like, manipulating people? That's wrong." Rachel laughed, and I was surprised.

She spoke, and once again, there was a bemused expression in her eyes.

"Wrong in what way? Did I deceive Kate? Yes. Did I do so with any negative intentions? No. I got her to invite you to breakfast with me, which I would have loved to have with both you and her anyways? Yes. The reason I did so, however, was to help out my best friend with a girl she met the other day, that she had no way of getting in touch with." She was staring at me with a examining look in her eyes, and I got the feeling she was trying to tell what kind of person I was. Or maybe she already knew, and was trying to confirm her hypothesis.

I slowly nodded my head. What she was saying made sense, and was reasonable, it was just the level of familiarity with Kate and manipulation on her part which unnerved me. The look in her eyes vanished, and Kate returned from the washroom. She budged past Rachel and sat down.

"Did I miss anything while I was gone?" Kate spoke.

"No, nothing much, just small talk. Right Max?" Rachel answered, looking directly at me while she spoke.

"Yeah, nothing much." I lied, not looking at Kate. Rachel seemed nice, and she wouldn't manipulate Kate for anything bad, so what Kate didn't know wouldn't hurt her. Right?

Joyce arrived with the food and we all dug in heartily. I finished in half the time it took for Rachel and Kate to eat their food, probably because I was both the most hungry and the one who had gone the longest without eating any of Joyce's cooking. I waited for Kate and Rachel to finish while we made small talk, and when Joyce came with the cheque, Rachel grabbed it.

"My treat. Kate always pays whenever me and her ate out, and it would be rude to ask you to pay when we just met." She winked at me, and I figured it couldn't be bribery when the food was this good. Heh.

Joyce took the cheque, and turned to Kate and Rachel.

"You two head out to the car, and I'll send Max on out in a few minutes. I just wanted to have a little chat with her. Rachel headed out happily, but Kate hesitated.

"It's nothing bad honey, I assure you." That seemed to please Kate, and she headed on out. Joyce turned back towards me, and smiled at me, her voice warm.

"Honey, it's been so long since I've seen you, and it's so nice to see you again. How about you come by my place tomorrow night, and eat dinner with me and the family? I have a daughter your age, it'll be nice, she could use some new friends." It was really nice of her to invite me, and I didn't have any plans, so…

"Sure Joyce, I'd love to come over. What's your address?" Joyce scribbled something down on her pad and ripped off a sheet of paper, tucking it into my bag.

"Don't you go losing this now, okay?" She winked at me, and I wondered how much of her patron's conversations she actually heard.

I got up and left, waving goodbye to Joyce as I did. I exited the diner, I turned around to look at the sign. The way the dim light of this morning hit the sign… I pulled out my camera and took a picture.

"Always take the shot." The voice from behind startled me, and I spun around. Standing there was Rachel Amber. "Something Mark always said." She spun around and walked off to the car. It took me a moment to remember that Mark was Mr. Jefferson.

Who was this Rachel Amber? She seemed to have this ridiculous intuition when it came to people. Either she was scarily smart, or was ridiculously gifted at interacting with people. I wish I could talk to people that easily.

As I stood in this sleepy morning, I thought about something. It was easy to look at the world, to see where to take good photographs, to see where the world framed itself just right. People… people were trickier.

 **AN** : There's Chapter 2. No Chloe in this chapter, just Rachel Amber's introduction and some setup for later chapters. I did my own take on Rachel's personality, as she doesn't show up in the games. Next chapter, should once again, be up within the next week (maximum, it'll probably be up before then.)

 _Uploaded Sunday, March 20th, 2016._


	3. Always Take The Shot

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 3: Always Take The Shot**

 **Saturday, September 14th, 2013**

I sat in my bedroom, staring at my phone. Now that I had Chloe's phone number, it was this big, looming spectre. Should I call her? Text her? How soon after meeting someone you thought was cute did you have to wait before texting someone? I mean, she talked to Rachel, but did she ask Rachel to get me her phone number again or did Rachel do that on her own? Sooo confusing…

I inched towards it on the bed when there was a knock on my door. Startled, I leapt off the bed and fell over, hitting my head on my table. Pulling myself up, I walked to the door and opened it. There stood Rachel Amber.

"Are you okay? I swear I heard something fall." I blushed and rubbed my head.

"Yeah you startled me when you knocked. I kinda tripped while getting up."

"Oh I'm so sorry." She actually did look genuinely sorry, like Kate would be when something happened that wasn't her fault. "Are you okay? Did you hit your head? That can be serious… and you might need to see a doctor... " She seemed to realize she was rambling, and cut herself off.

I pulled my hand away from my head and looked at it. The top of my three fingers were tinged red.

"Maybe you have a point…" And then everything went black.

 **Sunday, September 15th, 2013 (12:00 PM)**

I woke up. I was in a room and everything was white. Rubbing my eyes, I quickly realized this was a hospital room. I was wearing a hospital gown. God, these things were uncomfortable. Looking around, I examined the room. It was small, not any bigger than my dorm room. There were two chairs and a table in between my bed and the wall, which had two windows. The door was on the other side of my bed, and the place seemed very tastefully decorated, considering it was, you know, a hospital room.

Examining the table on the other side of my bed, I found that there were a small pile of get well cards, chocolates, flowers, and other general pleasantries. So many people had decided to send me cards. Warren, Kate, Dana, Brooke. I mean, I just moved here a week ago. There was one envelope which was sealed, no name, nothing on it. Weird. I'd look at it later. Just as I was opening up some of the chocolates, there was a knock at the door.

"Um… come in?" I wasn't sure. Why would a doctor or nurse knock? I mean, this was the first time I had woken up, and there was no-one else in the room. The door opened, and Rachel walked in, Kate trailing behind her. The second Rachel saw I was awake, she rushed over to my bedside, hastily pulling forward one of the chairs from the table to sit in.

"Oh My God are you okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to startle you yesterday, and you hurt my head, and it's all my fault," She looked really upset, and I grabbed her hand.

"Rachel, it is not your fault that I hit my head. That honor goes to me, and me alone, for being the clumsiest person in Arcadia Bay." She laughed, and she seemed much less panicked. I looked over to Kate. She was smiling a bit, and she was carrying a small package in her hands.

"Kate, what's that?" Kate smiled again and gave the small package to me.

"It's a present. Here, open it."

It wasn't very large, and I tore the brown paper wrapping off immediately. Inside was some film for my camera. Yes! I was running low anyways.

"Thank you Kate!" I sat up a little bit more, and she leaned down, hugging me. I put the film on the table besides me, and looked over to Rachel.

"So, did you talk to any doctors, or…" Rachel seemed to get what I meant and started talking in a fast-paced tone, though admittedly not too fast for me to understand.

"So you hit your head on the table pretty hard. You have a concussion, though admittedly a mild one. I rushed you to the hospital right after you blacked out, and they admitted you right away. They said they should be able to release you soon after you woke up, so you'll be able to have lunch and dinner normally, no terrible hospital food for you. Anything else you need to know?" She said all of this in one breath, and I poked her.

"That's fine, Rachel. Breathe." She exhaled, and she seemed fine again. A doctor came in, and ushered Rachel and Kate out. They waved to me as they left, and I waved back. The doctor walked up to my bed and checked the charts, reading through them quickly, before sitting down in the chair besides my bed that Rachel had left behind. He was sandy-haired, and moderately handsome.

"Hey there, Max. I'm Dr. Aaron Evans, you can call me Aaron. Are you feeling alright?" I nodded my head, and he continued. "You hit your head on a table, did I get that right?" I nodded again. "Well we put you through a CT scan while you were out, and you have a minor concussion. Seeing you now that you've woken up, and from what we observed from the scan, you should be fine, though there will be some minor after-effects, as there are with every concussion."

"After effects?" I shuddered. Dr. Aaron immediately looked concerned, and he placed his hand over mine on the side table.

"Listen, Max. Any after-effects you experience will be minor. He pulled out a pad of paper from his doctor's coat, and jotted down a small bullet-point list. Ripping off the piece of paper, he handed it to me. "If you experience any of the the things listed on this list, that's normal. If you hurt yourself anymore in the next week, or experience anything out of the ordinary that's not on this list, you let an adult you can trust know, and tell them you need to go to the hospital. But, in my opinion as a medical professional, everything will be fine. Okay?"

I felt a little better after that, and I nodded, picking up the piece of paper he had handed me. It had a small list on it written in messy handwriting, which I read:

 _-Nosebleeds_

 _-Lethargy_

 _-Blackouts_

 _-Loss of Balance_

When I finished reading the list, and looked up, resumed talking.

"So I called your parents," I groaned, and he smiled sympathetically. "Let them know what happened, and assured them you would be fine, back to normal within a week at the most." I beamed at him.

"Thank you!"

He grinned, and I got the feeling this was his real smile, not the one he just used for patients, though I had no way of knowing if my guess was correct.

"It's the least I can do for a young girl who's had a stroke of misfortune. Now if you'd sit up a bit, I do need to do a proper examination before I can release you."

He shined his flashlight in my eye and did a few other tests, before getting up from the chair.

"Alright, I, Doctor Aaron Stone, release you from hospital custody." He said this with the mindless tedium that one could only manage after saying something hundreds of times.

"Thank you." I said politely, and he walked out of the room.

Closing the curtains, I stripped off the hospital gown, and put on my clothes, which, having searched the room, I found in my bedside table. After doing so, I grabbed my bag, filling it with the get-well cards and chocolates, well at least the chocolates I hadn't eaten. Then I left the hospital, hoping to never come back.

 **Sunday, September 15th, 2013 (3:00 PM)**

I sat in my dorm room once more. I was listening to my music and finishing up some of my schoolwork. My head hurt a little, but it didn't seem like a big deal. My phone buzzed, and I saw that it was Rachel.

 **Rachel Amber:** I'm at the door to your room. Figured I'd do this instead of knocking.

 **(3:02 PM 09/15/13)**

I walked to the door and opened it. Standing there was, indeed, Rachel Amber. I let her into the room, and she plopped down onto the bed. I pulled up the chair I had been using so that I was sitting across from her, and she started to speak.

"So, I just wanted to say, again, that I'm sorry. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you, let me know. I owe you one"

I shook my head. "No you don't. I slipped and fell. It is in no way your fault."

She nodded, and she got up to leave, but I grabbed her wrist and pulled her back down.

"Although, Rachel. This has been bothering me. Why did you knock on my door? What did you want to talk about?"

She sat for a few moments in silence, before she spoke.

"So, I know this is weird now that you hit your head, but have you talked to Chloe? She said to me that you haven't texted her at all since yesterday."

I bit my lip. I wasn't sure, what should I say, what did I feel?

"Do you like her?" Rachel was looking at me intensely, she had that examining look in her eyes, and I burst like a dam.

"Yes! I mean I'm not sure. I saw her, and my stomach did a full gymnastic routine. I talked to her, and I felt more confident than I ever have in my life! She kissed me on the cheek, and I melted. Surely if anything, that means I like her! But I've had one conversation with her, how can I know… how can I know if... " I trailed off, not wanting to finish, not wanting to finish the sentence.

"If it's love?" Rachel said that, and I almost collapsed in my chair. "You can't. But what you can do, is have another conversation with her. And another, and another. Pick up that phone, and text her. Get to know her, and if you still feel the way you do, then you'll be a lot closer to answering that question."

"But what if-? I started to ask, but Rachel cut me off.

"What if you get hurt? Max, you're never going to get hurt if you never put yourself out there Max. Sure. But is that how you want to live life? You're young, you're almost in college. Live your life. This is the best time for it. If you get hurt now, you will recover. Time heals all wounds. But if anything bad happens from this, that matters 5, 10 years from now, it'll be that you have regrets. It won't be that you were hurt."

She got up and walked over to my table, and grabbed my phone. She placed it in my hand, and closed my other hand over it. "Try." She said that, and walked off, leaving my room. I sat there, shocked. Was what she was saying right? Wrong? Well, I supposed there was only one way to find out.

I picked up my phone, scrolled down to Chloe's contact number, and sent her a text.

 **AN** : Shorter chapter. There was a lot of rewriting on this one. I knew that Chloe wasn't going to appear in this one, I'm trying to build up to the next chapter. But I was unsure whether or not Max was going to talk to Chloe via text. I changed my mind a few times, and settled on this. If you're liking the story, leave a review! Please.

 _Uploaded Thursday, March 24th, 2016_


	4. What Are You Doing Here?

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 4: What Are You Doing Here?**

 **Sunday, September 15th, 2013**

I stood in front of 9 Blue Jay Lane, a house I had never been to. If that was true, then why did it feel so damn familiar? When I saw this house, I didn't see just another house on the street, I didn't see just another building where I supposed some family lived. I saw a house with a history, a house with a past. Maybe my concussion was acting up… but I got the feeling there was something else there.

I walked up to the door, and as I passed the driveway, I noticed a beat-up pick-up truck sitting there. It looked exactly like the truck Rachel had driven me and Kate around in yesterday. Maybe Rachel had borrowed it from Joyce? Kate had said they were close. Yeah, that was probably it.

Standing at the door, I pressed the doorbell, tapping my foot against the ground anxiously. It was almost immediately opened by a tall man with a crew cut and a mustache. He looked really familiar. Wait…

"You're David Madsen! The, the, the security officer at Blackwell!" I blurted out, and I swear a ghost of a smile stretched across his face.

"That I am little lady. Now why don't you come in, sit down, and I'll see about getting you and me some of my wife's delicious cooking." He stepped back, and I followed him inside.

David led me through the house, and I noticed several trinkets almost scattered about the house. There was a beanie hat sitting on the railing of the stairs, a small totem pole, a wine stain on the floor, and a snow globe with a doe. It's like the past and present of this house were taken and placed in these small trinkets, scattered all about. But the one thing my eyes settled on as I walked was a small photograph on the fireplace. It was of a man with blondish hair, along with Joyce and a teenage girl at a fair. They all looked very happy, and Joyce looked just beautiful in her outfit. The man with blondish hair obviously wasn't David, and I guessed he was the girl's father. So he either died, or left, or was was divorced, and Joyce married David. But that wasn't what mattered in this photo to me.

This girl… she looked incredibly familiar. I couldn't quite tell who it was in particular, but this girl's face definitely reminded me of someone I knew. Not Kate, not Rachel, definitely not Victoria… who was she? This bothered me the entire time I walked through the house, and I didn't notice when Joyce stepped out of the kitchen, nearly bowling me over.

"Whoa there, Max. You don't want to fall over so soon after yesterday, now do you." She winked at me, and I laughed. Then her eyes looked me up and down, seeing my outfit.

"Why Maxine, you look beautiful."

I blushed. Rachel, for some reason, had insisted that I wear the only dress I owned to this dinner. It was a simple white dress that cut off just above my knees, nothing fancy. It made sense to be polite I suppose, but a dress? Then again, I supposed I wasn't really into formal wear. Joyce seemed to like it, so I'd thank Rachel later.

David pulled out a seat for me, and I sat down, twiddling my thumbs. Well, not literally twiddling my thumbs, but you get the idea. After about a minute, David sat down to join me and Joyce set down dinner on the table. It was some sort of steak drizzled in sauce along with mashed potatoes, and it looked delicious. Everything was ready. Except even with Joyce sitting down, there was an empty seat at the table. Oh right! Joyce's daughter.

Joyce also seemed to notice the empty seat and crinkled her eyebrows. "Oh where is that girl?" She walked over to the stairs and called up. "Would you come down? Our guest is here, and dinner is ready." Another voice called down the stairs, sounding oddly familiar.

"Keep your skirt on, Mom, I'll be down in a sec!" It was probably just me imagining things. There was no reason I would have met Joyce's daughter, I knew for sure it was no one at Blackwell.

What would she look like? Would it be anything like in the photo? No, stupid, that was a while ago from what you saw. Do you look anything like you did 4 or 5 years ago? Of course not. I heard someone stomping down the stairs, and when they stepped into the dining room, I was stunned.

It was Chloe. Wearing a white tank top and acid-washed jeans, along with her beanie. Blue hair poked out from it, and I took in a deep breath of air. It didn't matter what she was wearing, she was beautiful. I think she froze up when she saw me as well, but then she sat down at the table with the same demeanor as before.

"Boy do I feel underdressed." She joked, looking me up and down. I blushed, and Joyce smacked Chloe in the arm.

"Stop, Chloe. I think it's nice that our guest decided to dress up. Speaking of which, take off your hat." Chloe shrugged, and took off her hat, throwing it down the corridor adjacent to the kitchen, expertly landing it on the hook. I got the feeling this was something she had done many times.

When she did this, her hair spilled out from under it, and she brushed it out of her face. I saw that it was purplish pink closer to the top of her head, and blonde at the roots. It took my breath away.

Joyce coughed, getting both of our attentions.

"Anyways, I've yet to introduce you two. Max, this is Chloe. Chloe, this is Max."

"Umm we've before." I said, smiling a little. Joyce blinked owlishly, and turned to Chloe.

"Is this true, young lady?"

"Yeah," Chloe responded. "I swung by Blackwell on Friday to say hi to Justin and Rachel. Ran into her there."

"I should've known." Joyce was smiling now. "In this small town, I think Fate has a way of making sure certain people meet. Now let's eat!" She started to serve out the food, and in no time, everyone at the table was chatting away and having a good time. Well, mostly everyone.

"What do you mean, you want to put up security cameras all over Blackwell?" Chloe exclaimed indignantly, her blue eyes shining in anger. They had been talking about my education so far there, and David had brought up his proposal. Chloe had exploded, and I felt like I was watching a trainwreck in slow-motion. I looked at Joyce, and saw that she was also looking between David and Chloe, trying to see how exactly this would play out.

"Well, I think that Blackwell should have some better surveillance. That way, we won't have any of the drug-dealing and rampant partying that happens now. What's wrong with that?" David responded, his eyebrows furrowing, as he tried to understand why his step-daughter was reacting with such anger.

"When's the last time ANY of that hurt ANYONE, huh?" Chloe was almost out of her seat, and yet the only thing I could think is how beautiful she was. Her tattoos almost moved on their own, as the intricate patterns stood out on her pale skin. Her hair flowed beautifully, not too long or too short. And her eyes… her eyes were on fire. They reminded me of the flame of a lighter, blue, both soft and harsh, both gentle and with the potential to burn everything around them. Beautiful.

I was jolted out of my admiration of Chloe as David responded to her question. Well, tried to respond.

"Never, but-"

"But nothing! Who cares if some kids are partying and wreaking a little havoc, so long as no one's dead, so long as nothing actually bad happens. Does the chaos bother you? Do you need to control everything?"

David froze. He had been calm and quiet for a while, but now he just stopped. And then he exploded.

"It's illegal, Chloe! Maybe a snot-nosed punk like you wouldn't understand that, but the law exists for a reason. The money from those drug deals doesn't go towards a good cause, it's what fuels the oppression of people all around this town, all around this state, all around this country!" He banged his fist on the table, and Joyce swooped in.

"Both of you, stop this nonsense! I will not abide this kind of arguing at my table. Stop!" They both backed down, but continued to shoot glares at each other for the rest of the meal, which consisted of me and Joyce making polite conversation to fill the awkward silence while we all ate dessert.

Afterwards, Joyce got Chloe and David to put the dishes away ("As an apology for arguing in front of our guest.") They glared at each other the entire time, and I laughed at that. Me and Joyce entertained each other with a bit more polite small talk, until I checked the time on my phone. It was 8:54

"Oh Joyce I'm so sorry! I need to get back to Blackwell, I have school tomorrow, and the last bus leaves soon." Joyce shook her head.

"No guest in my house is going to take the bus at this time of night. Chloe will drive you, is that okay?" I nodded, and told the butterflies in my stomach to shut up already.

I got out of my chair and stood up. Well, I meant to stand up. What actually happened is that the world started spinning and I fell to the ground. Dr. Aaron had said that loss of balance was one of the possible after-effects of my concussion, right? The other ones were nosebleeds, headaches, and blackouts. I was pretty sure blackouts meant passing out, because that was what was happening right now.

The last thing I heard before I passed out was Joyce cry out for help. The last thing I saw was the look of worry of Chloe's face as she rushed over.

 **Monday, September 16th, 2013 (12:54 AM)**

I woke up on a soft bed, blearily opening my eyes. The room was dark, but the harsh glow of a computer screen gave it some light. I saw Chloe sitting there, and wondered why I was there. I had passed out at dinner, so Chloe had carried me up to her room? That kind of made sense, I suppose. You shouldn't drive around people who were unconscious with brain injuries.

I sat there for a little bit, trying to fall back asleep. Sleep was good. When you were sleeping, you didn't have to worry about whether or not you loved someone. When you were sleeping, you didn't have to worry about whether or not someone loved you.

But try as I could, I couldn't. I just sat there, staring at the ceiling, worrying and contemplating about my emotions. Eventually, I guess I must have shifted around too much or something, because Chloe looked over, and realized I was awake.

"You're awake?" I nodded, wishing I wasn't. Then again, I was talking to Chloe, so it wasn't all bad. "Go back to sleep. I'll drive you to Blackwell in the morning, it'll be fine." I nodded, and then opened my mouth to speak.

"I can't fall asleep." I could make out Chloe frowning, even in the pale light of her computer.

"Can I help you sleep? Like, get you a glass of warm milk or something?" She squinted at me, and I was awed by the way her hair looked in the light of her computer. It was beautiful…

"Um, dude? You still awake?" I realized several seconds had passed, and I nodded again. I rolled over, facing away from her, trying to fall back asleep. Well I don't think I had ever fallen asleep to begin with. I had blacked out. Maybe that's why I was having trouble falling back asleep.

I heard movement from behind me, and I felt a pair of arms wrap around me as Chloe lied down on the bed behind me. I could feel her body pressing up against me, and I realized she was only wearing her bra and panties.

"Is this okay? I can sleep on the floor, if you feel uncomfortable. I just remembered that when I was small, crawling into my parents bed and sleeping against them always helped me fall asleep." I nodded sharply, and then realizing I was still facing away from her, let out a quiet

"It's okay." Then I added a small "It's nice," not wanting her to think she was doing anything wrong.

Chloe was warm, and she was definitely helping me fall asleep, but I still couldn't, try as I might. There was something niggling away at me, in the back of my head, doubting.

"Chloe?" I asked, still very quiet.

"Yeah?" She responded, clearly at least a little tired.

"Do you think…" I trailed off, before starting again. "Do you think you could ever love me?"

She let out a small laugh, and wrapped her arms around me a little tighter.

"That's not the question you need to ask, Maxie. Of course I could, I think I might right now. The question is whether or not I can find it in myself to deserve you."

She leaned over, and I felt a small kiss on my cheek. With that touch of her lips on my skin, all my doubts faded, and I drifted off into Dreamland.

 **AN** : Hey guys, we finally got some actual Pricefield. Yay! I also figured out how the update schedule is going to work. Yay! So we're going to have updates twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays. If I'm really overworked with my personal life, we might occasionally have it once a week, but I'll always let you guys know in the AN of the previous chapter. Also I have to apologize to one reviewer (I forget who). I stated to them in a PM that chapters would be around 3000-4000 words. That, sadly, is not accurate. Chapters will be around 2500-3000 words, with the occasional exception like Chapter 2, which clocked in around 4000 words.

See you guys on Thursday!

PS. Keep up the reviews. They're amazing, and so are you guys!

 _Uploaded Sunday March 27th, 2016_


	5. Good Morning

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 5: Good Morning**

 **Monday, September 16th, 2013 (7:30 AM)**

Joyce slowly opened the door to her daughter's bedroom, hoping to high heaven the door didn't squeak. The last time she had woken up her daughter this early, she had been beyond grumpy for the rest of the day, only appeased when Joyce had cooked salmon surprise for dinner, Chloe's favorite.

Peeking through the now open door, Joyce was greeted with the sight of her daughter sleeping soundly on the bed, her arms wrapped around their guest from last night, a girl she hadn't seen in 5 years, Max Caulfield.

The early morning shone in through the open window, painting the two sleeping girls in varying degrees of light and shadow. As she saw her daughter and her best friend sleeping, Joyce wished she had the photography skills of the latter. Chloe looked more peaceful than Joyce had seen her in years. If only she could capture this moment…

 **Monday, September 16th, 2013 (9:00 AM)**

Chloe woke up, feeling like a million dollars, though she wasn't sure why. Her arms were wrapped around someone smaller than her, and someone eminently warm. Hugging them closer, Chloe realised they were wearing a dress. But how was someone still dressed if she had slept with them?

The conundrum too great to allow her to continue sleeping, Chloe blearily opening her eyes, looking at the girl she had her arms wrapped around. Max? Everything from last night caught up with her, and she carefully extricated herself, trying not to wake her friend and surrogate teddy-bear.

Sitting straight up, Chloe rubbed her eyes. She decided to wake herself up the way she had every day for the last 5 years. Not coffee, which was under the purview of her mother, or beer, which step-douche guarded with a vengeful wrath. No, Chloe Price woke herself up by walking over to her bathroom and taking a shower, stripping out of her panties and bra.

As the hot water hit her scalp and ran down her body, Chloe exhaled, letting out a sigh of relief. As much as a good meal hit the spot, and as much as she loved smoking a great joint, there was nothing she appreciated more than a good shower.

Running her fingers through her hair, Chloe rinsed it out, feeling at the roots where she could tell that blond hair was pushing through. Did she let it push through? Or re dye it? She'd probably dye it, but she was entertaining the thought of reverting to her natural hair color for now.

Adding shampoo to her blue locks, Chloe mulled over the previous day in her mind. Max had come over for dinner, it had been going well, and then she had kind of ruined it by arguing with step-douche. Chloe winced. She'd have to apologize to her mom and Max later. And then it had gotten worse when Max had blacked out, an apparent after-effect of her concussion. God, that had sucked.

And in spite of all that, Chloe thought of yesterday as a good day. Well, a good night. She'd had the best sleep of her life in the past 5 years. All because of that wonderful girl, Max Caulfield. And they had talked. Chloe was remembering this now. Max had asked her if she could love her. That wasn't a question. That really wasn't a question. Of course she loved Max. Wowsers. She loved Max Caulfield.

No, the real question was, Chloe mused as she started to rinse the lather out of her hair, was whether or not she was good enough for Max Caulfield. This girl was so cute and petite, and amazingly talented, and genuinely one of the nicest people Chloe had ever met or talked to. What was she compared to that?

Why would Max Caulfield want to date her? What could that fantastic girl want with the blue-haired, beat-down punk that was Chloe Price? She had dropped out of her senior year, and only had a diploma due to the miracle that was Internet (School online rocked!). All she did was sit around the house and smoke weed. What did she have that would entice the wonderful Max Caulfield?

And so, as Chloe Price stepped out of the shower, wrapping a towel around herself, she decided one thing. Through Hell and high water, she was going to become worthy. She was going to make herself into someone who deserved to date Max Caulfield. Because Max was the only good thing she had left.

 **Monday, September 16th, 2013 (9:45 AM)**

Joyce Price watched as her daughter came down the stairs, dressed in a white singlet and, for once, a pair of jeans that weren't ripped. She padded over to the kitchen, and raised her eyebrows at the two plates of breakfast that Joyce had placed on the counter. They were hot and steaming, each bearing a bacon omelette. One had fresh fruit, and the other had Belgian Waffles with whipped cream.

"What's this?" Chloe asked her, surprise evident in her voice. "You only make breakfast for me like this on special occasions. Did I miss a holiday?"

Joyce laughed, a simple honest laugh.

"Maybe if you acted more like Max Caulfield, I'd make breakfast more often. This is for her, not you, you hell-raiser."

Joyce waved her spatula at her daughter expected a snappy retort or the like, but to her surprise, Chloe nodded knowingly.

"So is the plate with the fruit for me?" Joyce nodded, smiling.

"There was some left over, luckily. I figured since you were up, you can have this. I'll start frying up David's when he gets up." Her daughter's expression soured at the mention of Joyce's husband. Hoping to alleviate this, Joyce leaned over the counter, planting a kiss on her daughter's forehead.

"Now go bring up this food to your girlfriend, before it gets cold. I can hear her up and about." A rare smile graced her daughter's face, and she grabbed the plates, carrying them upstairs like she was the one who had been a waitress all her life, rather than Joyce.

Joyce smiled, watching Chloe bringing breakfast in bed to a girl she had met only 2 days ago. If this was the effect Max Caulfield had on her hell-raiser of a daughter, Joyce definitely wanted to see more of her in the future. And seeing the smile on her daughter's face, Joyce got the feeling she would.

 **Monday, September 16th, 2013 (10:00 AM)**

I woke up, blinking my eyes at an unfamiliar room. There were posters and graffiti everywhere, the room a chaotic swirl of color. Sitting in my dress, which was still rumpled from sleeping in it, I sat up. Wait, I had slept in my dress? Shit. That was going to take forever to iron.

The events of last night slowly pulled into focus as I shook my head. I had eaten a nice dinner with Chloe, Joyce, and her asshole step-father. And then I had blacked out. Looking around, I assumed this was Chloe's room, and that she had carried me up here after I blacked out. I blushed at the image of Chloe carrying me, bridal style.

Then I remembered Chloe crawling into bed with me, and us falling asleep with our arms wrapped around each other. That explained why I felt like a million bucks, even after I had blacked out, and slept the entire night on an unfamiliar bed in my dress. I very nearly had to prevent myself from swooning, and stripped off my dress, feeling very hot all of a sudden.

As I stood up, I looked down at the bed, and realized clothes had been laid out, along with a sticky note. The clothes consisted of a red flannel shirt, along with a set of jeans. Simple and comfy, just the way I liked it. I then picked up the handwriting, having to squint to read the handwriting of whoever wrote it.

 _Yo Maxaroni!_

 _I carried you up here yesterday after you fell asleep, though I don't know if you remember when you woke up yesterday. These clothes are Rachel's, she left them here last time she slept over. She's your size, so I figured it would be fine. Anyways… my Mom made us food! Your's is on the desk, though I don't know if you want to shower and dress before or after you eat. It should be fine either way, it's warm enough. Anyways, take a shower, get dressed, chow down, and come find me downstairs! I'm gonna drive you back to Blackwell, though now that I think about it there might be someplace I know that we can swing by on the way._

 _From the girl you spooned with yesterday,_

 _Chloe_

I blushed at the last bit, but smiled at all of the sticky note. I got a shower at somewhere other than the shitty Blackwell showers, Belgian Waffles, and some comfy-ass flannel? Best morning since I got here! Stepping out of the room, I found the bathroom, and, stripping off my underwear, turned on the shower, letting the hot water wash over me.

For the first time since Saturday, I engaged in my morning ritual of going over the previous day's events in the shower. Wow, yesterday had been chaotic. I had woken up from a concussion, gone to someone's house for some great food, and then blacked out. Wowsers.

Deciding that I didn't want to guess which of the ambiguous bottles was the shampoo, I stepped out of the shower, quickly toweling myself off, before picking up my underwear and heading back to Chloe's room. Once there, I put on the clothes laid out for me, marveling at how well they fit. The flannel was a little loose in the front, but that just meant it was tons more comfy.

I sat down at Chloe's computer, breathing in deeply over the food laid out. It smelled delicious. I dug in, finishing it up in a few minutes. God, Joyce was a good cook. After I finished, I headed downstairs, looking forward to whatever Chloe had in store for me.

When I got to the bottom of the stairs, I saw Chloe practically bouncing up and down by the door, clearly trying to stifle a Cheshire Cat grin. She spoke immediately, clearly impatient.

"Dude, let's go! I've got some hella cool places to show you." I grinned, excited. (though not quite as excited as Chloe)

"Gimme a sec, I have to talk to Joyce, thank her and stuff." Chloe's enthusiasm faded for a moment, but then returned full force a few seconds later.

"All right Max, go talk to Mom, but don't keep me waiting. I don't want to be a doctor," I frowned at the last bit, confused.

"What?" Chloe's smile stretched even wider, and she explained.

"I don't have any patients!" I started laughing, and playfully swatted her in the arm, before walking over to where Joyce was. She was sitting at the dining table, digging into a plate of her own eggs, similar to the omelettes she had made me and Chloe.

She looked up towards me, and took a moment to finish up her omelette, and taking a big sip of OJ before giving me a slight smile.

"Why Max, I didn't know you started taking fashion tips from Rachel Amber." That made me smile, and I looked down at my clothes. Chloe had said they were Rachel's and they totally looked like something she would wear.

"Chloe let me borrow them, said Rachel left them here. Me and her are the same size, I think." Joyce nodded, and I continued speaking. "Anyways, I just wanted to thank you for letting me having me over for dinner yesterday, and being so accommodating after I blacked out, letting me sleep over and all."

Joyce got up, and she pulled me into a hug. This caught me off guard, but I hugged her back as soon as I got my bearings. She released me, and started to speak quietly.

"Max, with how happy you make my daughter, and how good an influence you are on her, that was the least I could do. Thank you."

I smiled some more, and responded at equal volume. "Well I'll thank you as well, for being the mother of the girl who makes me this happy."

Joyce smiled some more, and spoke again.

"Well you better get going, because I think that girl's gonna explode if you keep her waiting any longer. See you around, Max."

"See ya." I walked away, heading back towards Chloe.

Once I reached her, Chloe grabbed my hand, before pausing. "Are you ready to go?" I nodded, before rolling my eyes.

"Of course, Chloe. Take me away to wherever your heart desires." I said dramatically. Chloe winked at me, quietly speaking.

"Be careful what you wish for."

I stepped out the door, content to go anywhere, so long as it was with her.

 **AN** : Sorry for the late upload guys, but I've been swamped on Thursdays recently (Well kind of late it's definitely still Thursday in my timezone, I don't know about your's). Because of this, next week's chapter will likely come out on Wednesday. Also, let me know in a review what you thought of the POV swapping in this chapter. Note that the first-person will always be reserved for Max, regardless of who's POV it is. Anyways, keep on reading, and if you enjoy, drop a review! **:)**

 _Uploaded Thursday, March 31rst, 2016._


	6. My Favorite Place

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 6: My Favorite Place**

 **Monday, September 16th, 2013 (10:30 AM)**

I sat in the car as Chloe drove us, wondering where exactly she was taking us to. A bar? No, they wouldn't be open this early. A strip club? I wasn't actually sure if there were any in Arcadia Bay. Well, there was probably a way to find out, one that didn't just consist of idle speculation. I tapped Chloe on the shoulder, but she didn't respond for about a minute. When we pulled up at a red traffic light, she finally deigned to talk to me.

"What is it Max? I'm driving, I can't really talk that much." She seemed nervous just talking, even when the car was stationary. Weird.

"Oh I was just wondering where we were going, you never said." I looked earnestly at her, and she held out a few moments before crumbling. Well, kinda.

"That's because it's a surprise, Maxi. Though if you want a hint, let's just say it's my home away from home." Then the light turned green, and she started driving again, refusing to talk.

Huh. With what I knew of Chloe, I would not have thought she would be such a careful driver. I guess there was even more to her than I knew. Duh, Max! You'd only known her for less than half a week, of course you didn't know everything about her.

That's when it clicked. I was in- I thought I was in love with a girl I'd only known for 3 days. What was I doing? I looked at Chloe, and thought back over what had happened. I remembered her grabbing me as I fell to ground, as I blacked out. I remembered her holding me in her arms, and falling asleep to the rhythm of her breathing.

I decided it didn't matter whether or not I felt I loved Chloe, it didn't matter how long I'd known her. What mattered was that I wanted to be with her, to get to know her, and that she felt the same way.

Due to this epiphany, I was smiling for the rest of the car ride. My smile faltered a little when we pulled up in front of an especially beat-up looking junkyard.

"Um, Chloe, are we at the right place?" Chloe was grinning, and she nodded her head. I sat there for a few moments, nigh-stunned. Then I realized that the door on my side was open. Chloe was mid-bow, her arm stretched out towards me.

"May I help you from your car, milady?" My smile returned, full force, and I took her hand, stepping out of the car onto the ground of the junkyard. She took my hand, and we slowly walked through the junkyard.

"So why here, of all places?" I asked, trying to sound nonchalant. I must have failed, because Chloe poked me in the shoulder, and I could see that her Cheshire Cat grin was still ongoing.

"Weeeell, Maxaroni, I wanted to show you my third favorite place in Arcadia Bay." She was still grinning, though now it was a simple, honest smile, as opposed to the trickster-ish grin she had been sporting earlier.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "Third favorite? You holding out on me, Price?" She laughed, and responded quickly.

"No, of course not. It's just that my second favorite place is the lighthouse at sunset. And sunset is like-" She looked at her wrist and frowned. "I really need to get a watch. Anyways, sunset is definitely not anytime soon."

"Anyways," I muttered. "Where's your favorite place in Arcadia Bay?"

Chloe's smile widened, and she leaned down, kissing me on the forehead, and wrapping her arms around me.

"My favorite place in Arcadia Bay," She whispered into my ear, her voice as light as air. "Is wherever you are."

I nuzzled her affectionately, and smiled at her.

"You know, Chloe Price, you're a real sap." Chloe hugged me deeper, and responded in a heartbeat. (I would know, I was close enough to feel it.)

"Yeah, but I'm your sap, Max Caulfield."

So we walked off, and Chloe showed me her third favorite place in Arcadia Bay.

 **AN** : Shorter chapter here, but there's a few reasons for that. 1, one of my readers recently gave me the advice not to worry about chapter length so much. 2, I haven't had that much time to write since Thursday. 3, this chapter just feels… done. The Junkyard scene wasn't put in because I care about the junkyard, or wanted Chloe to show Max any of it. Really it's just setup, and some good old Pricefield fluff. Thanks for reading, and let me know what you think in a review. **:)**

 _Uploaded Sunday April 3rd, 2016_


	7. A Lover's Quarrel

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 7: A Lover's Quarrel**

 **Monday, September 16th, 2013 (12:00 PM)**

Chloe's worn-out pick-up truck pulled up infront of Blackwell, and I opened the door to get out.

"See you later, Maxie." She called out as I left, and I leaned over before I stepped out, planting a light kiss on Chloe's cheek.

"See you later, Chloe." I whispered to her as I pulled away, stepping out of the car and quickly walking off, forcing myself to not look back, because if I did, then Chloe would see the blush that was currently burning up my face.

I walked back to my dorm, my blush fading, and starting to be replaced by a bright smile. As I walked, I saw Kate intersect my path, and she fell into step besides me.

"Max, where were you yesterday? Did you have a nice night with Chloe?" She wiggled her eyebrows, and I hit her lightly on the shoulder.

"You knew I was going to Chloe's? Why didn't you say anything?" Kate was smiling as much as I was, though her's was more mischievous.

"I didn't know you were going to her place, you just said you were going to dinner. Rachel let me know after you left." Kate explained, and I responded in kind.

"I knew that she knew it was Chloe's. Anyways, I may have blacked-out at Chloe's yesterday, so I stayed the night." Kate gave me a look, and she spoke a moment later.

"You blacked out? Were you drinking at Chloe's?" She had that stern motherly look on her face, and I almost laughed.

"Relax, Kate. I blacked out because of my concussion. It's one of the… aftereffects." I said the last bit hesitantly, realizing what was about to happen.

"Ohmygod your concussion has aftereffects? Are you okay? How long?" I think Kate would have gone on longer if not for the fact that she needed to draw in breath, so I cut in during that brief respite.

"Yes it does, I'm fine, and all it means is that I'm going to get nosebleeds, be a little off balance, and have the occasional blackout for the next week. Don't worry about it Kate, it's not your problem."

That prompted a glare from Kate, and I laughed again.

"I thought you would know by now, Max Caulfield, that I care about people regardless of whether or not their problems are mine. Okay?"

This in turn prompted even more laughing from me, so much that I could barely speak.

"I'm sorry-", "It's just that-" I managed to recover a bit, and spoke properly. "I just can't take you seriously when you're acting all strict and stuff, ya know?"

Kate lightened up a bit, and nodded.

"I'm not the best at being strict, it feels a bit too much like I'm being mean to people." I nodded. I felt like that sometimes too, but I liked to think I was a little bit better at standing up for myself then Kate was.

"We'll work on that, can't have people bossing you around, Katie."

"All right then." Kate responded, and I had to repress a chuckle at the irony.

And then I had to repress a gag at the person who crossed our path. Victoria Chase, though interestingly enough, she was without any of her usual posse.

"Hullo Max. Hi Kate." I swear I saw her blush a bit, and decided to comment on it.

"You're looking a bit flushed, Victoria. Anything or anyone catch your fancy?"

"No! I was just, um, jogging! Yeah, I was jogging." She spat out hastily, and I looked her up and down. She was wearing trackpants and a t-shirt, which was unusual for her, and it was what I would expect someone to go jogging in…

"Okay. Any particular reason you decided to grace us peasants with your presence?" Victoria snorted at that, and I realized she wasn't looking at me, her attention was focused on Kate. Ideas started to form in my head…

"Didn't you hear me, Lamefield? I said I was jogging. The reason I happened to meet up with you guys is that I was walking back to the dorm, just like you two were. Has the brain damage got to you?"

Then the impossible happened. Kate Marsh stood up to Victoria Chase.

"Sh-shut up Victoria! That's really mean! Max just got out of the hospital, and you're being mean to her for no reason! J-just go away if you're going to be-" Kate drew in a deep breath. "If you're just going to be a bitch." The last bit was quiet, not the yell that the rest of her statement had been, and I was shocked.

What happened next shocked me even more. Victoria walked away, silent, and I could swear I saw her shoulders shaking, like she was crying. Then her pace quickened, and I saw her dash back to the dorm. I stood there, shocked, for almost a full minute before Kate grabbed my hand. She seemed quite upset, though more angry than sad, oddly enough.

I was pulled back to the dorm, and Kate left me at the door, running to her room, I assumed. Should I go comfort her? I wasn't sure what to do, and I stood at the door to the dorms, paralyzed.

Time passed. I wasn't sure how long, maybe 10 minutes. I walked into the dorms, and saw that at the end of the hallway, Victoria's door was open. I walked over and looked in. On the bed, their arms wrapped around each other, slept Victoria and Kate, both looking equally emotionally exhausted. Huh.

 **AN** : Okay, I think I've figured out what works. I'm going to upload chapters on Wednesdays and Sundays. Each will be small, potentially less than a thousand words, unless I feel the scene involved requires more description. This story will be one of events, one of emotion, not one of sweeping narrative. Plus I don't have THAT much time to write.

 _Uploaded Wednesday April 6th, 2016_


	8. Will You Go Out With Me?

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 8: Will You Go Out With Me?**

 **Friday, September 20th, 2013 (5:30 PM)**

I sat on my bed, feeling contemplative. Class had just let out half an hour ago, and like a total loser, I had nothing to do. It was a Friday night. Heck, even Kate was going out tonight. But not me. No, I, Max Caulfield, had nothing to do. My plan was to sit in my dorm all night and watch old movies on my laptop. Such is the path of the loner.

I was interrupted from my musings by a knock at my door. Making sure not to rush standing up, I got off my bed and walked to the door, wondering who it was. I knew Warren wouldn't enter the girls dorm. Kate had mentioned going out with Victoria to a club, so that ruled out the two of them.

As I opened the door, to my surprise, I found it was none other than Rachel Amber. I mean she was nice and all, and we HAD talked, but it was just that we operated in too many different circles. I was a loner, she a social butterfly. I was a hipster, she was… well I didn't know how to pin down Rachel Amber, but we were different people.

I was jolted out of the my thoughts, as Rachel started to talk.

"Hi Max."

"Oh hi Rachel." I responded. Why would Rachel want to talk to me on a Friday? Didn't she have like, a club to go to or something? I would be very surprised if she had nothing better to do than talk to me.

"So do you have any plans for tonight?" Wait what. Was Rachel Amber asking me on a date?

"Are you asking me on a date?" Rachel let out a small laugh, and then responded.

"No No No, I was just wondering if you had any plans today." I blanched. Did she not get it?

"It still really sounds like you're asking me on a date…" I trailed off, and Rachel laughed again.

"What do you think it's funny? Yeah, I get it, you're way out of my league!" My face was flushed, and I made to slam the door, but Rachel grabbed my arm.

"Max I didn't mean to offend you. Can you just answer the question? Please?" There was something about the look in her eyes, so I responded.

"Fine. If it makes you happy, my plans are to stay in my dorm and watch movies all night. Now leave me alone!" I shut the door. It wasn't quite hard enough to be called slamming it, but it was close.

I heard Rachel's footsteps walk away, so I flopped back down onto my bed. Great Max, you just yelled at one of the few people who are even close to being your friend. Just peachy. I put on one of my favorite movies to make me feel better. _Sleepless in Seattle_ , starring Tom Hanks.

Around halfway through the movie, someone started playing music outside. It was a nice song, _In Your Eyes_ by Peter Gabriel, but it was pretty loud. And it was right outside my window. God. Didn't anyone know what headphones were? I tried to ignore it, and succeeded for a few minutes.

Then a pebble hit my window. I assumed that it was a coincidence and ignored it. A minute later, another pebble hit my window. That was it. I walked up to my window, ready to open it and give whoever was there a piece of my mind. And my breath went away.

Standing there was Chloe, a boombox on her shoulders, playing that song, the same song from _Say Anything_ that John Cusack plays when he's standing outside Diane Court's window. She was grinning, wearing her leather jacket and a pair of beat-up jeans. The particular white singlet she wore today had an image of a rose. Her hair looked almost fluorescent in the light from the sunset.

"Hey Max!" She called out, her voice raised in an attempt to make herself heard over the song. Then, thinking better of it, she set it down, turning it off.

"Yeah? What're you doing here?" I responded, my cheeks flushed. Chloe's grin stretched a little wider, and I almost fainted when I heard her response.

"Well there's this girl you see. She's beautiful, smart, kind, the whole package. And I wasn't sure how to ask her out, until I remembered that she loves old 80s movies." She paused, watching my expression. Then, seemingly emboldened, she continued, asking the question I had realized she had been leading up to.

"Will you go out with me, Max Caulfield?"

And then I gave the only answer I could.

 **Friday, September 20th, 2013 (8:00 PM)**

I stood outside the entrance to the Blackwell dorms, rubbing my arms from the cold. I was wearing the same dress I had worn to Chloe's house last Sunday when I had come over for dinner. Joyce had been kind enough to iron it and send it over after I had slept over. I wish I had something else to wear, but all I had was the one dress. I didn't really have enough money to buy another one, with all the film I bought. Maybe Mom and Dad would be okay if I bought a new dress with the credit card they gave me if I told them it was for a date?

I was interrupted from that particular line of thoughts (that was rapidly becoming a theme for this night) as a pick-up truck pulled up in-front of me, honking it's horn once. The passenger door on my side opened, and a hand reached out to help me in. I grabbed it, and I was hefted into the car.

Looking around, I saw that the car had been cleaned up, so that it now resembled a clean, average, if somewhat beat-up and old car. Then I looked over to Chloe, and my heart stopped.

She was wearing a simple blue dress, with stockings and (unsurprisingly) her combat boots. Gone was her trademark beanie, and she seemed… kind of naked without it. The thought made me blush, and Chloe smiled as she looked at me.

"You look beautiful." I said to her, and her smile widened.

"I was thinking the same thing." She leaned over and kissed me. I responded in kind, and it lasted for a few moments, at which point she pulled away, a goofy smile on her face.

After a few minutes of just sitting there dumbfounded, I managed to get out a sentence.

"So where are we going?" She started up the car, and pulled out Blackwell, keeping her eyes on the road. Then, after about half a minute, she obliged me, responding,

"Oh just this place I found while walking around the Bay. Good atmosphere, great food."

She refused to elaborate, so I just sat in the car as she drove, letting the moonlight play across my face. I pondered my first kiss, and I pondered my first love.

 **AN** : More Pricefield feels for ya! Date will be next chapter, with all the fluff that entails! Short AN this week, because I don't have much to say. Keep on reading!

 _Uploaded Sunday April 10th, 2016_


	9. Moonlight

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 9: Moonlight**

 **Friday, September 20th, 2013 (8:30 PM)**

I closed my eyes, listening to the music Chloe had put on as she drove. It was energizing, and not at all what I expected her to listen to. Heck, I was fairly sure I had heard this song on a pop radio station a few days ago. It was, from what I could tell, a song about a boy and girl who fell in love at a party. The boy saw a future with the girl, and he loved her. She loved him too, but she didn't want to admit it, so she just danced with him.

I mused on this for a few minutes more until we pulled up in front of a slightly run down looking restaurant. Then again, this was Arcadia Bay. It was an achievement in and of itself when a building did not look run down. It was dark, and I couldn't quite make out what was written on the sign. I squinted some more and tried to read it, to no avail.

"Could I help you out milady?" I blinked and realized the door on my side of the car had been opened by Chloe. She was standing there, slightly bowed, holding it open for me. I took her proffered hand and stepped out, smiling.

"The lady thanks you." I said, making a slight curtsey. She laughed, and led me arm in arm into the restaurant.

As I walked in, the first thing that struck about the place was it's quiet. It was set up like your average American restaurant, tables, a bar, some TVs. All the TVs were on silent though, and it was kinda quiet for a Friday night.

We were met up front by a sort of mousy looking girl with dark black hair, wearing a plain black t-shirt, jeans, and a small apron. She looked at us expectantly. I froze up, uncertain.

"Table for two, under the name Price." Chloe spoke coolly, and I realized that she had just been asking us for that. I relaxed.

"One moment please." The mousy girl walked away, entering a door that presumably led to the kitchen, and about fifteen seconds later, Dana walked up.

Wait what. What was Dana doing here? She greeted us, wearing her usual large-as-life smile.

"Hey guys! I heard you had a reservation?" Chloe nodded, and she led us to another part of the restaurant, chittering as we went.

She had just finished talking about some dance coming up when we reached a small room with a closed door. She stopped talking and composed herself.

"Sorry guys, the boss says I need to be more professional." I blinked at that.

"Dana, don't apologize. You're one of the best people I know. I'd never want you to not be you." That brought a smile to Dana's face, and she hugged me.

"Thanks Max! You're a great friend!" She pulled away, and I saw that Chloe was smiling at me a bit as well.

Dana opened the door of the room and spoke, but I didn't hear her. The room was lit only by candles and by a few small lanterns hanging from the ceiling. In the middle of the room was a table, with a fancy tablecloth and a candelabra.

Chloe led me by my hand to the table, shocked as I was, sitting me down. Dana gave us our menus, and then said something else I didn't quite catch. Then Chloe poked me.

"What? Sorry, I was a bit zoned out." Chloe smiled, and spoke.

"She asked what you wanted to drink, Maxaronie." I smiled, and thought for a little bit.

"I'll have a chocolate milk please." Chloe snickered and I smacked her arm. "Hey! I'm a grown woman and if I feel like having chocolate milk, I'll have chocolate milk!"

Chloe snickered some more before turning to me, wiggling her eyebrows.

"Alright, I'll keep in mind that you're a "grown woman," tonight." I blushed, and Chloe quieted down, reaching over to brush my cheek with her hand. "You're adorable, you know that?"

I heard Dana make an "aw" sound and then walk away, having taken our order. That reminded me that technically, we were here to have dinner. I looked at the dinner, furrowing my brow. It was Italian cuisine, although I wasn't sure how good it was. You could get good Italian good anywhere, but only a few places made it like they actually did in Italy.

"So what're you going to have, Max?" I heard Chloe ask, and I rolled the question over, thinking.

"You know what, after you saying Maxaronie earlier, I feel like pasta. I think I'll just get some pasta alfredo." Chloe nodded, responding in kind with her own order.

"I, personally, am going to be having the best Italian food, pizza." I rolled my eyes. Of course.

"What kind?" I was a little curious. Then again, I tended to be a little curious about everything.

"Pizza Diavola." I frowned, running that through my head. Seeing my confusion, Chloe answered the unspoken question.

"Hot peppers and Salami. It literally means "The Devil's Pizza" in Italian." She grinned, and I knew that she found that more than a little cool.

"Sounds tasty. I might snag a slice if I have room."

"There's always room for pizza." Chloe said, nodding sagely. I burst out laughing, and Chloe grinned, breaking her "wise elder" impersonation.

Dana came by and collected our orders. Soon enough, we were dining in style, me on pasta, Chloe on pizza. The food was really good, authentic, and the atmosphere in the room really added to it. I did end up snagging one of Chloe's slices, though it was a bit too spicy for me. Luckily, chocolate milk cuts through spice just fine.

Finally, the time came for the bill. Dana came and put it down. I reached for it, but Chloe had longer arms, and snatched it up first.

"Don't worry dude, I got this." She pulled out some money from a clutch purse I hadn't previously noticed, and handed it over to Dana. I felt a little bit put-out. That was a lot of money…

"Are you sure you're okay with that?" I questioned, and Chloe reached across the table to grab my hand.

"Really, it's okay. Rachel scored me a sweet gig a this tattoo parlor a month ago. I'm practically swimming in cash." She smiled, and that made me feel a bit better. Rachel Amber really was the lynchpin to everything in this town, even my Chloe.

Wait, my Chloe? Before I had much longer to ponder the implications of that, Chloe grabbed me by the wrist and led me back to the car.

The drive back to Blackwell was uneventful, and mostly consisted of me humming along to the soft music Chloe had put on. When we finally go there, I stepped out, and saw that Chloe had gotten out too. I raised an eyebrow at her, and she shrugged.

"I'll walk you back to your dorm, dude. It's only polite." I obliged her, and we walked back to my room, holding hands the whole way.

We finally reached my dorm, at which point Chloe let go of my hand and rubbed her head awkwardly.

"Well I guess this is your stop." I opened the door, and Chloe looked inside, before slipping through the doorway.

"Dude I've never seen your room before. These decorations are hella cool!" I nodded, walking in myself.

I looked at Chloe, painted by the soft, almost blue glow of the moonlight through my window.

"Chloe, will you stay with me?"

She looked at me, raising an eyebrow, and I blushed, realizing the implications.

"No, not like that. Just lie next to me, and keep me warm. Stay with me." I repeated, feeling both emboldened and anxious from the butterflies pattering around my stomach.

Chloe looked at me for a heartbeat, before pulling me into a deep kiss. When we finally, after what felt both like an eternity and entirely too short a length of time, pulled apart, she whispered to me.

"Always."

We curled up next to each other on my bed in our underwear, pulling the covers up over us. And as I fell asleep to the steady pattern of Chloe's breathing, I decided I loved her, and I was never going to let her go.

 **AN:** And done. I find it doesn't take that long to write these, it's just about finding the time to sit down and well, put pen to paper. (Or fingers to keyboard, in my case.) So here was the date, with all it's fluffy Pricefield goodness! Keep on reading and reviewing!

 _Uploaded Wednesday, April 13th, 2016_


	10. Blush

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 10: Blush**

 **Saturday, September 21rst, 2013 (9:00 AM)**

I came to consciousness slowly, in the same way you fell asleep: slowly, and then all at once. I had a periphery awareness of my surroundings for quite a while, and then I was awake. Looking around, moving my head slightly, I found that I was lying in my bed in my dorm, but Chloe was there too. We were both in our underwear, and I let the events of last night slowly come back to me. Chloe had taken me on an amazing date, and I had asked her to sleep here.

I carefully extricated myself from her grasp, shivering as I moved away from the source of heat that was her body. I saw her shift as I got up, but she stayed asleep. God, just sleeping there, she looked so peaceful. I bent down, and placed a kiss on her cheek, before getting off the bed, and taking stock of what I should do now.

A cursory examination of my phone revealed that it was 9:00 AM, and that I had a few new messages from Kate, Rachel, and even 1 from Victoria. Huh. Unlocking it, I opened up the messages app, tapping on my chat with Kate:

 **Kate Marsh:** So how was your date with Chloe? ;)

 **(8:09 AM 09/21/13)**

 **Kate Marsh:** No but seriously you guys came in really late last night, was it okay?

 **(8:15 AM 09/21/13)**

 **Me:** Of course it went well, she's right here :)

 **(9:10 AM 09/21/13)**

I snapped a quick photo of Chloe, looking as peaceful as she did sleeping, and sent it to Kate. A few minutes later I got a response, and I smiled at her words.

 **Kate Marsh:** Awww that's adorbs! Did you…

The text trailed off, and I could imagine Kate blushing, awkwardly tapping the keys of her board.

 **Me:** No, no, no. Cute of you to ask though. We just came back to my dorm and crashed.

 **(9:14 AM 09/21/13)**

 **Kate:** Sorry gotta go :( Me and Victoria are going out to breakfast. Cya!

 **(9:18 AM 09/21/13)**

I closed my phone, smiling at the thought of Kate and Victoria getting breakfast together. Or considering how early Kate got up, would it be brunch? I shrugged, deciding it didn't matter, and wrote a quick note, tearing off a page from the notepad on my desk.

 _Chloe,_

 _If you just woke up and I'm not back, I'm in the shower freshening up. Be back soon._

Leaving that on my bedside table, I headed to the showers, grabbing a towel.

 **Saturday, September 21rst, 2013 (9:45 AM)**

Chloe came to slowly, rubbing her eyes. Slowly recalling the events of last night, and why she was currently lying in a bed in a Blackwell dorm (a very well decorated Blackwell dorm mind you), she smiled. Her and Max had gone on a date, and it had been awesome, and she'd scored. (well kinda. Like an emotional score. Which still counted.)

Getting up and running her fingers through her hair, Chloe noticed a small scrap of paper on the bedside table. She read it. Well if Max was in the showers, what was she to do? She couldn't leave, Max was going to be back soon, like she said… Chloe smiled.

 **Saturday, September 21rst, 2013 (10:00 AM)**

I came back into my room from the shower, smiling. Everyone had either already taken a shower at least an hour ago or wasn't up yet, so I had had plenty of hot water and plenty of time. Walking into my room, I saw Chloe stretched out on my bed, clearly bored. The second I stepped into the room, her head perked up, and all of a sudden she was standing right in front of me.

"Hey babe." She whispered, and I blushed.

"I just got back. Speaking of which, you should take a shower. I doubt anyone will mind, there's no one in there." I saw a cheshire cat grin spread across her face, and she whispered in my ear.

"Maybe you should join me…" She trailed off, and my blush deepened to a point where I felt like I had been in a sauna instead of a shower.

She laughed and pulled away a little bit, her grin getting even wider. Then she did something which I should have expected, but didn't. She started stripping off her underwear. I averted my eyes and blushed some more.

"What? Dude we slept together last night." She paused, and winked at me. "I'm pretty sure you're allowed to see me naked."

Still looking away, I asked;

"Are you going to walk down the hallway like that?" She walked back closer to me, almost inches from me, and it was hard not to look.

"Well if you're not gonna take a peek at the goods, then maybe someone else will." I let out a little whimper, and she laughed, stepping away again. "Nah, I'll grab a towel." She promptly grabbed one from the closet and sashayed out of the room, tying the towel around herself as she did. I'll admit I watched her ass as she left. Damn, that ass.

I dropped the towel and stepped over to the bed, plopping down. The towel had dried me off, but Chloe had gotten me wet.

 **AN** : Chloe is the greatest tease. And god that last line was bad. Debated changing it, but I decided it was so bad it wrapped around again and was better than anything I could come up with. Anyways, I know there was not chapter on Sunday. I've been a little overworked lately. Schedule is going to go back to normal now, don't worry. Besides, I've been updating twice a week, which is WAY better than some authors on this site.

 _Uploaded Thursday, April 21rst, 2016._


	11. Blondes

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 11: Blondes**

 **Saturday, September 21rst, 2013 (10:15 AM)**

Chloe stepped into the shower room, looking around. Teasing Max had been fun, but she really did need a shower. Hanging up her towel, she paused for a moment to admire herself in the mirror, looking at the tattoo that wound it's way up her arm. Damn she looked good.

Stepping into the shower, she turned up the water until steam coiled up around her. Say what you would about Blackwell, at least this private snobby-ass high school had a good water heater. She ran her fingers through her hair, thinking about the previous day. Wow. She had taken Max out on a kick-ass date, and gotten to sleep in her bed. Score.

After a few more minutes of washing her hair (god why did the dye make it so difficult), Chloe heard the door open and someone walk in. Peeking through the door crack, she saw it was that bitch Victoria. According to Rachel, she was dating Kate Marsh, which Chloe found impossible to believe. From what she had seen of Kate Marsh while she was at Blackwell, the girl was a sweet, sheltered, caring person, the kindest individual Chloe had ever met. Kind of the opposite of Victoria in that respect, and in almost every other one as well. The only thing they had in common was their hair color.

She had to stifle a laugh at that, remembering that she had the same hair color as them as well. Well, the same natural hair color. Chloe couldn't see Victoria or Kate dyeing their hair blue. Another stifled laugh. Oh my fucking god Victoria was going to notice.

Pfft. Who cared? She was Chloe Price, she wasn't scared of a prissy ass bitch like Victoria Chase. Turning off the water, she stepped out of the shower. What followed was priceless. Well not really, she was there, but it didn't matter.

Victoria was applying mascara when she stepped out, and managed to narrowly avoid stabbing out her own eye, still screwing up her makeup in shocked reaction as she saw her number one nemesis come out of the showers in her dorm, buck naked.

Chloe smirked, seeing Victoria's reaction. So worth it. Stepping over to the rack where she had left her towel, she picked it up, tying it around her waist.

"What's the matter, Victoria? Cat got your tongue?" She taunted, making sure her towel was tied properly. It wouldn't do to flash some random girl in the hallway.

To Victoria's credit, she recovered rather quickly, firing off a response, her tongue as sharp as a razor.

"No, I was just shocked to see a girl who was kicked out of here for smoking weed back so soon, and in the showers? Or are you here to visit the lame waif down the hall?" Victoria smirked, tilting her head slightly.

Chloe felt her face grow red, but with anger, not embarrassment. What she could do to this prissy bitch… She felt her hand ball into a fist, and forced it flat again. It wouldn't do to get into trouble while visiting Max. She didn't want to get her girlfriend in trouble. Wait, girlfriend? Never mind. Instead, she made to leave, spitting out an insult as she left, her words dripping with hate and spite.

"Go fuck yourself, Victoria. At least I'm with someone who loves me. I doubt that Kate really loves you, and I don't think anyone ever will."

Chloe left the shower room, and she wasn't sure, but she thought that she might have seen tears form in Victoria's eyes as she did.

 **AN** : Wow, that was intense. A whole chapter from Chloe's POV (though admittedly not a very long one.) What did you guys think? Let me know in a review! Give me sustenance! Cya later!


	12. What Am I To You?

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 12: What Am I To You?**

 **Saturday, September 21rst, 2013 (10:35 AM)**

I was sitting by my desk, looking at some old Eric Weston photos online with my laptop when the door opened. Turning around, I saw Chloe walk in, still only wearing a towel. Looking at her, I pursed my lips.

"Do you even have any clothes you can wear today?"

Chloe looked at me in surprise and did her best to look offended, though I could tell she wanted to laugh.

"Hey, you're the one who brought me home, honey. You don't get to mention my lack of planning." Her eyes glinted with mischief, and she took off her towel again, making to put on her underwear and dress, both of which laid crumpled on the floor.

I managed not to blush for a few moments, telling myself that it was no big deal, but I did eventually turn away, my face reddening.

"Look, we need to talk." Out of the corner of my eye, in my mirror, I saw Chloe freeze up as she put on her clothes, and saw a look of panic cross her face, and for a moment she looked for all the world like a deer caught in headlights. I quickly added:

"No, it's nothing bad. I just wanted to talk about what exactly we are."

I saw Chloe relax, and she continued to get dressed, though was now watching me with a look that she thought was casual. I resumed speaking, cautious of my phrasing;

"We've gone on a date… a really nice date. We've kissed multiple times, and we've slept in the same bed twice. So would you call us… girlfriends?" I felt my heart fluttering, threatening to burst out of my chest.

I closed my eyes, afraid of the answer I might get from that question, when I felt a pair of strong arms wrap around my waist. Awkwardly turning around, I saw Chloe, her face inches from mine. I looked into her eyes, how blue they were, so blue I felt like I was drowning, or maybe that was just her, or me. I traced the pattern of her face with my eyes, saw the lack of the freckles that were so ever-present on my own. I saw her lips, and then felt them move forward, press up against mine.

She had kissed me before, and I had kissed her, but I had never known what it _meant_. This time, my body lit up like a Christmas tree. I felt a rush of euphoria like no other, and when she pulled away, I could see a goofy smile on my face, as I was reflected in her eyes. I saw a Cheshire grin spread across her face, and she looked straight at me.

"You can call me whatever you like, so long as I get to stay with you. And I would be delighted to call you my girlfriend."

She stepped away a bit, and plopped back down onto the bed. I wasn't sure for how long I stood there, just gently swaying, both shell-shocked and amazed. I finally found my bearings, and spoke;

"Thank you. You have no idea how much this means to me." Chloe looked up at me, and her blue eyes flashed and she looked at me, looked through me.

"I think I do." She stood up, and took my hand. She took my hand and we walked into the hallway.

No matter what I faced, no matter what was outside those doors, I'd be okay. I would be more than okay, because Chloe would be with me. We would be together, we would face the world together.

 **AN** : This chapter is late. I'm a little sorry, but I am overloaded with work. While writing this story makes me feel better, I need to be in a good headspace to work on it. This story will keep coming out, chapters will keep being released. They will be approximately this long, maybe a little shorter. They may be a little late. Thank you for your continued support.

PS. Grumpycat, when you review this, please don't mention how I shouldn't stress myself to put out chapters. I enjoy writing this story, and I understand my limits.

PPS. Shoutout to Grumpycat, my number one fan! Thanks also go out to Xieren, Debott, and everyone else who has reviewed, favorited, followed, or even reads this story on a regular basis. Thank you.


	13. Jonathan Stroud Reference

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 13: Jonathan Stroud Reference**

 **Sunday, September 22nd, 2013 (1:12 PM)**

I headed to the cafeteria, looking to get lunch. I had gotten breakfast shortly after me and Chloe had become girlfriends, (Oh My God Chloe was my girlfriend squee!) and had done some classwork after that.

As I walked, I felt a pair of arms wrap around me, and I spun around.

"Chloe?" I asked, surprised. I felt whoever it was pull away, and they laughed.

"No, Max, it's me, Rachel." She laughed again, and I looked at her, clearing away the hair in front of my face.

Standing there was Rachel Amber, in the flesh. Her blonde hair was drawn up into a ponytail, and she had a smile as wide as the River Nile stretching across her face. Sweat glistened down her brow, and she wore a pink tanktop and black running shorts, which only served to accentuate her curves and petite frame. Damn, I wish I had a body like that.

"Why are you wearing that?" I asked, and she put a finger on the side of her jaw, as if she was trying to remember why she was wearing that.

"Oh, I was running with Victoria, you need the right outfit for it, otherwise you get all sweaty, and not in the good way."

"You were running with Victoria?" I spat out in surprise, and tried to cover it up hastily, sputtering. Rachel smiled some more, and poked me in the forehead.

"Look, I'm friends with everyone around here. I know that sounds like bragging but it's not. It takes hard work. Part of that involves reaching out to people. And the only way I have of reaching out to Victoria, and actually talking to her is via running with her. Plus it's great exercise."

I nodded. That made sense (kinda). Well if Rachel wasn't busy right now, maybe we could get lunch? Was she busy?

"Hey Rachel, did you want to get lunch? Or are you busy, or…?" I asked, uncertain.

Rachel looked pensive for a moment, before pulling out her phone and tapping around a bit.

"No, I'm free right now. Lunch sounds great."

We walked to the cafeteria, and grabbed some food. I took a slice of pizza with chocolate milk, and Rachel grabbed a beef patty with a pop. Sitting down, Rachel started to speak, before stopping to bite her beef patty.

"So how about you and Chloe, huh?" I sputtered, chocolate milk going down my windpipe. I glared at her. She had timed that with me taking a sip of it.

"You waited-goddamnit." Rachel laughed. A lot. After she finished, she straightened up, and started actually talking, instead of trying to choke me.

"Chloe texted me after she got to work, about how your date went, and how you two are apparently girlfriends now. However, she refused to give me the low-down on what-" She paused, and wiggled her eyebrows suggestively. "Happened." I glared at her some more, before finally breaking down and telling her.

"After the date she drove me back here, and I showed her my dorm, and I just… I just didn't want her to leave."

Rachel chucked at that, and inserted her own hypothesis. "So you convinced her, if you know what I mean?" I smacked her arm, and tried not to smile at that.

"No! I just asked her to, you know, snuggle me. Stay with me. And then we fell asleep."

Rachel smiled at me.

"You know what, I think you two are going to be just fine."

I thought so too.

 **AN** : Sorry for the lack of chapter on Sunday. I have like, a project in every subject right now in school, so it's hard to find time to write. Sorry :( I won't say that chapters will go back to normal now, because I could be lying. There will be at least one chapter every week, and two if I have time.


	14. Impress Me

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 14: Impress Me**

 **Monday, September 23rd, 2013 (9:00 AM)**

I walked into class, sitting down between Kate and Dana. It was quite loud, and I was about to put in my earphones when I saw Kate's face. Her eyes looked moist, and the tip of her nose was so red it reminded me of Rudolph. Poking her, I calmly asked her;

"Katie, are you okay? You look like you've been crying…" I trailed off, and waited for her to answer. It was a few minutes later, and she wiped her face on the sleeve of her cardigan before answering.

"It's-it's nothing. I'm fine." I looked at her point-blank.

"You're not fine. You've been crying, and whatever it was, it was sudden enough that you still had to come to class afterwards."

Kate drew in a deep breath, before repeating, more slowly this time.

"It was nothing. I'm-i'm fine, Max." Her voice was still a little shaky, but less so. I looked at her, and took hold of her hand, gripping it tightly.

"Okay Kate. But I want you to know that you are my best friend in the whole world, and I will always be here for you, no matter what. You can tell me anything."

Kate took another deep breath, before speaking again.

"Thank you Max. You're one of the kindest people I know. But I'm fine." She almost sounded a little annoyed now, which was weird for Kate, so I stopped. I just had to trust that she would come to me if something was wrong.

I felt a nudge in my side, and turned around. Dana looked chirpier than usual, and was glancing at me expectantly.

"So how did your date with Chloe go? Come on, give me all the insipid details." She wiggled her eyebrows, and I had to withhold the urge to laugh.

"It was really nice. Thanks for being our waitress. And nothing insipid happened, thank you very much." I poked Dana in the shoulder to accentuate this, trying to put on a stern look. Judging from her reaction, I don't think I succeeded.

"Oh really? Nothing at all? Because rumor has it that Chloe slept over at Blackwell, if you get my drift." I was surprised that she knew that, but not particularly. Someone had probably seen Chloe walking to or from the shower.

"It was nothing. She drove me over here, and it was late, so I didn't want her driving back with it so dark." I lied casually. Dana winked at me, and replied cheekily;

"Sure you didn't, honey. Sure you didn't."

I would have responded to that (I'm not sure how), but at that moment, walked into the classroom. He was immaculate as always, his hair perfectly styled, his demeanor casual, and his suit jacket was a lighter shade of grey today. In his hand he carried a manilla file, but that was hardly unusual. He was always bringing photos to show to us during class.

He walked to the center of the front ot the room, which wasn't unusual per se, it's just that he usually preferred to walk around as he taught, or sit on the edge of his desk, swinging his feet in his black dress shoes. He straightened himself up, and began to speak;

"Today marks the beginning of an opportunity for all of you aspiring professional photographers. In roughly a month's time, the Everyday Heroes contest will be displayed at the DeYoung Museum in San Francisco. Given that we are such a prestigious school, the contest has allowed me to submit one photo. So all of you will submit your photos, one each, to me. I will pick a winner, who will fly to California and be feted by the art world as their photo is displayed to the entire West Coast photographic scene. Several professional photographers and gallery owners will be there, so make sure to submit your very best work."

took a deep breath for air, before continuing his monologue.

"And while it is not mandatory, I expect, and believe it would be in your best interests, for each and every one of you to submit a photo. You have the next two weeks to go out and take what you believe to be a photo worthy of celebration, and then submit it to me." He grinned, as if he was about to deliver a surprise.

"And, as you can't really get inspired or take any breathtaking photos while stuck in here, I am giving you guys several classes off to work on this, including this one. Go on, get out of here."

He made a sweeping motion with his hand towards the door, leaving us with a final few words.

"Impress me!"

And as I stepped out the door of the class, I believed that I would.

 **AN** : Once again, I apologize. This time I'm not apologizing for the lack of chapters though. I said there would be one a week, and here it is. I'm apologizing that it wasn't on Wednesday, when you guys would normally check for a chapter. If you liked this, and you have the time, leave a review!


	15. Interlude (Rachel)

**Prologue** : Rachel Amber fits in everywhere. Everyone likes her. Some people like her a little too much. This is her story.

 **Chapter 15: Interlude (Rachel)**

 **Friday, April 19th, 2013 (10:00 PM)**

Rachel sat on the couch in the Vortex Club VIP room, leaning back and nursing a red solo cup filled with beer. It tasted a little off, but that was probably just from the energy drink she had kicked back earlier. Nothing like some Monster to kick off a night of partying. The room was oddly empty, but she supposed the other members of the Vortex Club were enjoying the atmosphere of the party before coming in here.

She heard footsteps, and Nathan stepped in through the curtain that separated the VIP area from the rest of the party. Okay, admittedly it was hard to hear with how loud the music was, but she managed. God, she thought she was getting a headache from the volume.

"Hey Rach, how's it hanging?" Nathan was wearing a red leather jacket with a black t-shirt, along with acid-washed jeans and some sneakers Rachel was sure were more than anything she owned. Okay maybe not some of her dresses, but mostly everything else.

"Pretty good, pretty good. Just kicking back. I don't really like these parties earlier in the night, ya know?" Nathan bobbed his head, either comprehending or having the good manners to feign understanding. He sat down across from her, sipping his own drink. She didn't know if it was beer or a harder liquor, and wasn't sure if she wanted to. Nathan was mean when he was drunk. Okay, also when he was sober, but not to her. He was sweet to her.

She tapped her fingers against the table, drumming some of her anxiety into it. It was just her and Nathan here, and if he had been drinking… She shook her head. It was five feet from here to the curtain outside. If he got too pushy she could just step outside, where there were plenty of witnesses. Nobody would be finding Rachel Ambers corpse buried somewhere in 6 months.

"So where is everybody else? Victoria, Logan, Courtney?" She asked, uncertain of the answer and hoping to god that Nathan was in a good mood. His brows furrowed, and it was several seconds before he responded.

"Victoria and Courtney are dancing out there, and I think Logan is trying to put the moves on some chick he saw." He let out a little laugh, and she reciprocated. It was a fake laugh, and he knew it. Too hollow. "It's just us, right? That's cool, no?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"I dunno. I mean, I like hanging out with you, it's just that I wanted to ask Victoria about something, and I always love seeing Logan strike out trying to get someone out of his league, right?" His shoulders were tensed, and she swore her headache was just getting worse. It was getting hard to focus. Maybe she should get out of here… She made to get up, but Nathan reached out, grabbing her wrist.

"No, stay!" Um… I wanted to talk to you. You know, just you and me. We never do that anymore." Yeah, we never did that because she was scared. Nathan could be nice, but he had… he had an edge to him that unnerved her. He could seem easy going, he could seem brash, arrogant, all normal emotions. But when they were alone, when she could really get a read on him, that was when she really saw him… and what she saw terrified her.

She sat back down. God, what had she just been thinking? She had lost her train of thought… it was getting hard to think. Was there something with her beer? She looked down at it, and then back up at Nathan, and saw that he was looking at it too. Wait…

"You drugged me." She made the connection, and the words died in her throat. They came out as barely a whisper, and he looked straight into her eyes. He scared her.

"Maybe I did." He shrugged his shoulders, somehow mocking the carefree gesture she made only moments earlier. "If that's the only way, then I'll take it."

And then the world blurred. It was as if the world was one giant Jackson Pollock painting, or a photo that was still developing. Nothing was quite fully formed, there was just impressions and blobs of color. A red and black blur, somehow more frightening than anything she had seen in her life. But then there was a bright shock of blue, standing out like a beacon, giving her hope. It moved in front of her, and then the world faded into darkness.

 **Saturday, April 20th, 2013 (10:00 AM)**

When she came to it was morning. She was lying on Chloe's bed, and boy did she have a headache. It felt like a hangover, but not quite. More angry, if that made any sense. Did she have tequila last night? Oh god did she have sex with Chloe?

Rachel looked down, and breathed out a sigh of relief as she saw that she was fully clothed. She loved Chloe, but she didn't want to feel like she was taking advantage of the younger girl, and didn't want to just sleep with her. She wanted to make love to her.

Putting that aside, Rachel sat up, and looked around. Yep, she was in Chloe's room. She heard the door creak, and Chloe came in. She was wearing jeans and a singlet, which was surprising. Chloe usually wasn't out of bed, let alone dressed at this time of day on a Saturday.

Chloe sat down on the bed, and started to recount to Rachel the events of the last 12 hours. How she had found Rachel and saved her from what would probably have been rape, and how she had driven her back to her house, and put her to sleep in her own bed.

And in the weeks and months to come, when Rachel asked Chloe how she had known to come get her from the Vortex Club, how she had realized that Rachel was in danger, Chloe would only respond with 4 words.

"You needed my help."

 **AN:** So there's that. I stole the idea of interludes from the popular web serial Worm by Wildbow. I figure I'll do these every 15 chapters, or maybe just whenever I feel like it. They're a fun way to explore other character's POVs and tell their stories in the Shock of Blue Hair universe. I had to explain why Rachel was still around in this timeline and figured this was better way to do it than a flashback or having her tell the story to Max. If you liked this, and have the time, please leave some feedback in a review!

See you next time!


	16. Shared Revelation

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 16: Shared Revelation**

 **Wednesday, September 25th, 2013 (7:00 PM)**

I laid down on my stomach on my bed, propping my head up with my hands and binge-watching a show on my laptop. Chloe was working (again), so I had nothing better to do than lie here and watch tv on my laptop. I guess I could go out and take some photos for the Everyday Heroes contest, maybe try and get inspired… but I was having trouble with that. Every time I went out and tried to set up a composition, or think of ideas, I would get distracted, and lost in my own thoughts. It was like my own thoughtfulness was stopping me from taking a simple photo. Okay, not a simple photo, but a photo nonetheless.

I pulled out my earbuds and got off my bed, slinging on my bag, and making sure I had some film. I was never going to get past this if I didn't at least try. As I stepped out of my room and into the corridor, I heard someone crying from the room across the way. Victoria's room. And the door was slightly open, though admittedly that was probably why I could hear her. At least, I was assuming it was a girl, judging from the pitch of the sounds.

I walked up to her door, peering through, and knocked on the frame, as I was pretty sure knocking on the door would cause it to swing even more open than it already was. Inside, on her bed, sat Victoria, her face in her hands, making small sobs. She wore one of her typical outfits- a nice blouse with a camisole, along with a long skirt and stockings. She looked up at the sound of me knocking, and I could see her eyes were puffy and bloodshot from crying.

"What-what do you want, Caulfield?" She sniffled, and in that moment my heart broke for her, despite all the cruel things she had said to me in the past. And she was dating Kate. If Kate wasn't here to comfort her, I would do it in her stead.

"Um, could I come in? You look like you could use someone to listen to." Victoria nodded her head slightly, and I stepped into her room, walking over to the bed and sitting down beside her.

"Um… if you wanted to talk… or something?" Victoria let out a small laugh, but it was hollow, and I could tell that it wasn't out of happiness.

"Well, Caulfield, I suppose I could talk to you. I could talk about how I just left the only person who ever really cared about me. I could talk about how it was because I felt I didn't deserve her, and that I was only ever going to hurt her in the long run. And," She spit out the last words out with embittered venom, and I flinched as I heard them. "I could talk about how it was your girlfriend that told me that. How it was your precious Chloe-fucking-Price that told me the only person I had ever loved would never feel the same way about me. But I won't. I won't talk about it because it hurts- " She choked up, and managed to finish her statement before bursting into more tears. "Because it hurts too damn much." She was crying a waterfall now, and I shifted closer to her on the bed.

She collapsed onto me, and I let her prop her head on my shoulder as she cried, and we sat there. It could have been for minutes, it could have been for hours, but eventually her sobs stopped, and cut off. Eventually her ragged breathing slowed, and became the gentle in-and-out of sleeping. And as I laid her to bed, pulling the blanket up to her chin, I knew that she would be all right. Because time heals all wounds.

 **Wednesday, September 25th, 2013 (8:00 PM)**

Rachel sighed, as she sat in the cool night air outside Arnaldo's Tattoo Parlor. Chloe had just gotten off work, and Rachel had decided to come get dinner with her, as friends. It had been forever since they had just hung out, just the two of them. Chloe sat on the steps leading up to the parlor besides her, and they were both drinking bottles of beer, hidden in paper bags. Chloe was rambling on about something, and it wasn't until Rachel heard Victoria's name that she tuned in.

"Wait, where did you meet Victoria? I'm pretty sure you two don't operate in the same circles." Rachel asked, and watched as Chloe rolled her eyes in irritation before answering.

"I ran into her when I was staying in Max's dorm for the night after our date. I went to use the shower and she was in there. God, she's such a bitch." Rachel felt a shiver go down her spine, and asked the question that came to mind.

"What did you say to her?" Chloe's face balked, but she answered all the same.

"What do you think I said to her? She was talking shit about Max, so I called her out on it. I would have given her a few bruises," Chloe cracked her knuckles ominously at this. "But we were on Blackwell property, which I wasn't supposed to even step foot on, and I didn't want Max to get in trouble, so I settled for using my words." Rachel looked straight at Chloe, trying her best to put on a serious face.

"What exactly did you say, Chloe Elizabeth Price? Tell me, now." She tried her best to keep her voice hard, separating what she was saying from her concern for Kate and Victoria. Chloe seemed to realized the gravity of the situation, and gulped nervously, before responding.

"I told her that Kate probably didn't love her, and it was likely that no one ever would." Rachel cringed at this and took Chloe's hands, setting down both Chloe's bottle and her own.

"Listen to me very carefully. That was probably the worst thing you could have said to Victoria, and I'm almost entirely sure that you destabilized their relationship in the process. If I ever hear from anyone that you said anything like that, to anyone," Rachel tried to put emphasis on that last bit. "I will have to reconsider whether or not I want to continue being friends with you." This was a hollow threat, but Chloe didn't know that. Suddenly the blue-haired punk was the picture of nervousness, paling and running her hands through her hair.

"Alright, alright. I didn't realize- I didn't think- wait, do you think Max will be mad? She's friends with Kate, right?" Rachel nodded, and paused a moment before responding.

"I think there's a very real possibility that Max will be just as mad as I am, if not more, given that she's closer with Kate than I am, despite having only known her for a few weeks. They're kindred souls, those two." Chloe's nervousness seemed to kick itself up a notch at this, and she started tapping her fingers against her thigh incessantly, something Rachel recognized as how she fidgeted when she was nervous, and even then she only realized it because of how long she had known Chloe.

And then the tears came. Chloe rarely cried, she usually just got angry, or… no, it was usually just anger. But now there were tears, and as Rachel held Chloe close to her, she knew that even if Max and Chloe fell apart, even a rift was made between them, they would be okay. Because time heals all wounds.

 **AN** : Sorry for the length between updates (it's been like three weeks.) I'm alright though, it's just that this is more than fluff, and was harder to write. Fluff comes easily. And more of it will come soon, in future chapters. If you liked this chapter, and if you like this story, please leave a review! Thank you for reading.


	17. Sins, Not Tragedies

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 17: Sins, Not Tragedies**

 **Thursday, September 26th, 2013 (5:00 PM)**

I sat on the bench by the fountain outside Blackwell, breathing in the fall air. It was a bit chilly, but my hoodie was more than up to the task of keeping me warm. The trees nearby were changing colors, and they looked beautiful, so I got up, taking a few photos with my camera, and walking around the pavilion.

Suddenly, I felt a pair of hands cover my eyes, and I spun around, nearly dropping my camera in the process. As I did, I bumped into someone much taller than me, losing my balance. As I did, a pair of arms caught me, and I saw who it was.

It was Chloe, standing right in front of me, larger than life, her arms wrapped around me, stopping me from falling over. She was wearing her jacket, along with a pair of ripped of jeans and a black t-shirt with the name of a band I didn't recognize. I looked up at her, and straightened up, so that I didn't need her to hold me up anymore. She kept her arms wrapped around me though, and tilted her head downwards, looking directly into my eyes. I closed my eyes, and our lips met.

After only a few moments however, she pulled away, and I could see she was shaky, unsteady. Her eyes were the palest shade of blue I had ever seen them, almost a shade of gray.

"Chloe, are you okay?" I asked.

"No-well yes- but it's just- I fucked up, Max. I screwed up and I'm not sure what to do."

"Tell me what it is that happened." I didn't want to believe it, I didn't. What Victoria had said couldn't have been true. It couldn't.

Chloe took a deep breath, before launching into a monologue at a pace fast enough that I had trouble keeping up.

"Well after our date in the morning when I went to use the shower, I ran into Victoria, and she was being a bitch and saying rude things about you, and me, and us, so I said- I said some horrible things to her. I told her that Kate didn't love her, and that no one would. And it was dumb, and terrible, and impulsive. And- And-" Chloe was taking in huge gasps of air now, like she was trying not to drown. She was pale and trembling, and- wait what did she say?

I felt like I was in a dream… or a nightmare. Victoria wasn't lying, oh god, and I was just standing there, and then all of a sudden I wasn't even controlling what spilled out of my mouth, wasn't thinking before I spoke.

"Why would you say that? They're broken up now, and Victoria is devastated, and if Victoria is hurt by this, then how do you think Kate feels? You've ruined something beautiful, something that meant an awful lot to two people who I consider my friends, with just a few impulsive words?"

"Max, just can you- can you understand, please? Max, I need you." Chloe was shaking, and I didn't understand and wasn't sure and why would she say that?

"Just go. Okay Chloe? I need time to process this. Just go."

So I watched Chloe turn and walk away, looking more hurt and vulnerable than I had ever seen her. And then I walked back to my dorm, feeling more hurt and vulnerable than I ever known I could.

 **AN** : ...What have I written?


	18. Dazed And Confused

**Prologue** : Quantum Mechanics states that there are an infinite number of worlds. This is boring, and you have likely heard it before. Something more interesting that you might have not heard, is that on one of those worlds, Max Caulfield never met Chloe Price before leaving Arcadia Bay. Let me tell you the story of what happened when she came back.

 **Chapter 18: Dazed and Confused**

 **Sunday, September 29th, 2013 (2:00 PM)**

I laid down on my bed in my room, staring up at the ceiling. Arcadia Bay had felt familiar when I first came back, like slipping on a pair of old shoes, smiling as they fit just right. But now it felt unfamiliar, alien. I had stumbled around the last few days in a daze, halfheartedly completing my schoolwork, and now I was contemplating life, in a rare moment of lucidity.

A sharp rap at the door interrupted my musings, and I pulled myself up off the bed, groaning as my body protested. I wobbled over to the door and opened it, yawning. Standing there was Rachel, looking perfect as ever, her long hair done up in a ponytail, wearing a blue t-shirt (A blue the color of Chloe's hair) along with a denim jacket and torn jeans. She looked me up and down, before speaking, her voice calm and level:

"Max, you look terrible! Are you still in your pyjamas?" I looked down, and saw that yes, I was still wearing the clothes I had slept in last night. Well… slept was stretching it. More like the clothes I had laid down in my bed under my blanket in.

"Uh yeah, I guess." Just then my vision blurred, and I stumbled, Rachel catching me, her grip surprisingly strong for someone of her size and build. (Well, someone of my size and build.)

"You nearly just fainted! And you're so pale! When was the last time you ate?" I struggled to remember, and half-heartedly forced out an answer.

"Uh, Breakfast? In the cafeteria, I think." I couldn't remember if that was today, or yesterday, or the day before?

Rachel frowned at me, and pulled me back up, standing me up on my feet before dusting off my clothes.

"Max, you didn't have breakfast this morning. I saw you get up at noon, and the cafe closes before then. So if you didn't eat today, when was the last time you ate?" She asked again, and I struggled a little more to remember.

"I guess it would have been Friday then? Friday, at dinner…" I knew there was something wrong with that, but I just couldn't bring myself to eat. It just seemed so… pointless. Rachel didn't seem to agree with this, and she grabbed me by the arm, dragging me out into the hallway.

"That's it, I'm getting you something to eat. You haven't eaten in two days, god." She led be by the arm through our dorm and out the front door, never mind the fact that I wasn't wearing any shoes, or that I was still in my pajamas, which consisted of a thin pink t-shirt and comfy pants with patterns of birds on them.

She eventually managed to drag me to the cafeteria, where she sat down at one of the tables, before walking up to the counter and grabbing two sandwiches, handing one to me before unwrapping the other one for herself.

"So what happened. I've heard Chloe's side of it, and from what she said, it sounded like you couldn't deal with what she did to Victoria." Neither Rachel's words nor her tone sounded accusatory, but something in the way she sat and the look in her eyes screamed "Your fault" to me.

"I don't know. I still can't wrap my head around it. I wasn't there, so I don't know exactly what happened, but I've heard both Victoria and Chloe's side of it. I can't grasp how she could be so casually destructive and callous. I don't think I could be near her right now, but I can't stand to be apart. I… I don't know what to do." Rachel took a long look at me, and ran her hands through her hair, momentarily dropping her carefully maintained facade. She then composed herself before looking up at me, straight in the eyes.

"Let me tell you a story."

 **AN** : Hullo! Not dead! Please leave reviews!


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